Australia's S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO)(ASX: XJO) and ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) indices finished lower on Thursday.
Here's a short recap of the Australian market:
- S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) lower 2.74% to 5,883.80
- ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) lower 2.76% to 5,993.40
- AUD/USD at US 71 cents
- Gold at US$1,193.90 an ounce
- Brent Oil at US$81.58 a barrel
It has been a bruising day for the ASX with resource businesses, banks and technology stocks all dropping heavily.
To start positively, the best-performing ASX 200 share today was gold miner Evolution Mining Limited (ASX: EVN), its share price rose 6.3% with the Board approving the Mt Carlton Underground Mine. Indeed, the whole gold sector did well today.
Tech shares were truly pummelled. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) shares dropped 11%, WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) shares fell 10.5% and Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) shares went down 7.9%.
The share price of Transurban Group (ASX: TCL) fell only 0.5% today after revealing that traffic grew in the September 2018 quarter.
Bank shares were hurt heavily today with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price down 2.9% and the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price dropped 2.6%. Both of the banks' CEOs appeared before a MP hearing in Canberra for more grilling.
Resource shares also felt the pain, BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) shares declined 3.8%.
Somehow, global packaging business Amcor Limited (ASX: AMC) managed to increase its share price by 1.6% today due to management saying at its AGM that the start of FY19 was going well.
Finally, the Baby Bunting Group Ltd (ASX: BBN) share price fell 1.6% today despite the baby product retailer saying that it expects significant growth in FY19.
Here are some of today's top stories:
