Aussie market’s dour start to trading week as ASX 200 extends losses, falls to fresh four-week low

The Aussie market has made a dour start to the week’s trading, weighed down by the major miners as the iron ore price continues to fall. The benchmark ASX 200 index fell by 46.50 points or 0.56 per cent, to finish Monday’s trading session at 8249.50 points. It marks the fifth consecutive daily fall, with the markets hitting a fresh four-week low. The broader All Ordinaries also fell, trading down 56.30 points or 0.66 per cent to close Monday’s trading at 8494.00 points. Meanwhile, the Australian dollar rose slightly to 63.67 US cents, although it remains at the low end of its 63 to 69 cent range it has been trading at for most of the last 12-months. This follows a shift from the RBA last week, which suggested rate cuts could be coming soon, only to be offset by stronger than expected domestic job figures. Overall, 8 of 11 sectors were lower along with the S & P/ASX 200 Index. Consumer Staples was the best performing sector, gaining 0.16 per cent in an overall negative day on the market. Australia’s market followed slight weakness out of Wall Street, with the Dow Jones falling 0.20 per cent, while the S P 500 traded flat and the NASDAQ grew 0.12 per cent. It was a day dominated by the minerals sector, with the major miners continuing their slide from Friday, after the iron ore price fell on expected weaker Chinese demand. This narrative continued on Monday after China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced a number of key economic updates with the market trading down after their release. Retail sales grew by 3 per cent in November, down to 4.8 per cent and market expectations of growth of around 4.6 per cent. Fix asset investment, a proxy for infrastructure spending, increased by 3.3 per cent in the 11 months to November, while property investment fell 10.4 per cent over the same period. “In the second month after government stimuluses kicked in, China’s economic growth disappointed consensus, as retail sales – a gauge for household consumption – came in materially below economists’ forecasts and industrial production and fixed asset investment have remained at roughly the same annual pace in the past 3 months,” AMP economist My Bui said. Following the announcement Rio Tinto fell 2.06 per cent, while BHP fell 2.28 per cent. Fortescue Metals was the worst of the major iron ore miners, down 4.26 per cent during Monday’s trading. Other miners including Newmont down 3.5 per cent and Pilbara Minerals down 3.1 per cent. The A-REITs sector is getting hit by a sustained flop in new data centre infrastructure DigiCo which is down 6.9 per cent in its second day of trading. Financials and consumer staples were the rare bright spots on the market. The big four banks were up between 0.2 and 0.75 per cent, with Westpac being the best of them now up to $32.41. Woolworths is up 0.7 per cent, while Coles slightly rose, up 0.11 per cent.