The S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) managed to close up 0.2% in lacklustre trading as markets wait for the results of the US Federal Reserve meeting taking place this evening.
Gains amongst the big four banks offset falls in the mining and energy shares, but these four companies saw their share prices sink by more than 5%…
FAR Ltd's (ASX: FAR) share price dropped 10.9% to 9.8 cents, putting a bit of a dent in the 40% gains seen in the past month. The energy explorer is drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Senegal, Africa, which appears highly prospective. The company's SNE Field is the largest global oil find since being discovered in 2014. But despite the prospects, investors seem to have found something they didn't like in the company's presentation to the Melbourne Mining Club today.
Seven Group Holdings Ltd's (ASX: SVW) share price slipped 5.5% to $5.70 and have now lost more than 11% in the past five business days. Seven is a conglomerate with part ownership of Seven West Media Ltd (41%), the WesTrac Caterpillar equipment leasing business, as well as a 20% stake in Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) as its main assets.
CEO Ryan Stokes recently told The Australian that the company was seeing excavator sales slowing in China, but says the company is not 'overly worried'. Perhaps investors are becoming more worried about the company's exposure to a slowing China, volatile oil prices and a media sector undergoing structural change.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) saw its share price sink 4.3% to $2.43, as iron ore prices continued their descent. Spot iron ore fell 4.8% overnight to US$52.88 a tonne, and well off the US$63.74 a tonne it saw last week. Fortescue's share price tends to swing wildly around the moves in the iron ore price, given its dependence on the commodity and huge debt balance.
Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS) saw its share price slide 3.9% to $1.74. The supermarket distributor and owner of the Mitre 10 brand is one of the most heavily shorted shares on the ASX, with investors betting the ongoing supermarket wars between Aldi, Coles and Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW) will result in Metcash's IGA stores being the major casualty. Mind you, it could also be investors taking profits after share rallied more than 60% in the past six months.
