At lunch on Friday the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) is on course to have a disappointing finish to the week and is down 0.8% to 6,211.2 points.
Here's what has been happening on the market today:
Bank shares tumble.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), and the rest of the big four have dropped lower today and weighed heavily on the index. ANZ and CBA have been the worst performers with declines of 2.5% and 2%, respectively.
S&P Dow Jones rebalance.
S&P Dow Jones indices has announced the rebalance of its major indices today. This has seen IOOF Holdings Limited (ASX: IFL) dumped out of the ASX 100 and Automotive Holdings Group Ltd (ASX: AHG) and Infigen Energy Ltd (ASX: IFN) kicked out of the benchmark ASX 200. The latter two shares have fallen heavily on the news.
Gold miners push higher.
Concerns about global economic growth are behind today's selloff. This has led to an increase in demand for risk off assets such as the gold miners. As a result, the Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) share price and the Regis Resources Limited (ASX: RRL) share price are pushing higher on Friday. Both are up around 2% at lunch.
InvoCare trading halt.
One share that is missing out on today's selloff is InvoCare Limited (ASX: IVC). The funerals company placed its shares in a trading halt this morning whilst it undertakes a fully underwritten institutional placement to raise approximately $65 million via an institutional placement and $20 million share purchase plan. The net proceeds of the capital raising will be used to provide incremental balance sheet flexibility.
Best and worst performers.
The best performers on the ASX 200 today have been Northern Star and Regis Resources. Not far behind is the Mirvac Group (ASX: MGR) share price which is up 1.5%. This is also likely to be due to increased demand for risk off assets. Going the other way is the Infigen Energy share price with its 5.5% decline, followed by the Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) share price which is down 5% despite there being no news out of the graphite miner.
