Market Wrap: Telcos send ASX sharply lower

The DuluxGroup Limited (ASX:DLX) share price painted a nice picture today.

Tom Richardson

Tom is a holder of the CFA Society of the UK administered Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and has more than a decade's professional experience in the investment management industry in Australia and the UK. Tom now works as a writer and editor for TMF Australia and has two easy to remember rules of investing he likes to follow. Avoid overpaying for growth stocks and avoid paying at all for stocks that are cheap for a reason. Tom prefers growth investing over value investing and says it's not rocket science, just avoid overpaying for the best returns.

Published April 18, 2017 5:38 pm AEST

The local stock market headed lower today as investors sat on the sidelines after the Easter Holiday waiting for some economic data points to provide direction. Below is a summary of today's price action.

S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) down 0.9% to 5,836 points
ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) down 1% to 5,868 points
AUD/USD down 0.5% to US 75.55 cents
Iron Ore at US$66.25 a tonne, according to the Metal Bulletin
Gold flat at US$1,283 an ounce
WTI oil futures at US$52.61 a barrel

The best performing companies among the S&P/ASX 200 were data centre business Nextdc Ltd (ASX: NXT) that climbed 3.3% to $4.05 on the back of a broker upgrade, while DuluxGroup Limited's (ASX: DLX) 2.35% share price rise also painted a nice picture for its investors.

At the other end of the market it was the telcos in the dog house once again with TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM) plunging 17.4% after it announced a capital raising at a heavily discounted price of $5.25 per share. Elsewhere dividend seekers' favourite Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) continued its horror run by losing 3.85% to close at $4 per share.

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