Happy Independence Day for our American Fools out there! For the rest of us, since it is 4 July today, it's a good opportunity to look back at the month that was and check out what happened on the ASX boards. June was a pretty bleak month for ASX 200 shares and the share market overall.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) ended up falling 8.9% over the month, which is a pretty nasty one-month performance. But let's dig a little deeper into these market moves and check out the best and worst-performing ASX 200 sectors over June.
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What were the best and worst-performing ASX 200 sectors over June?
| ASX 200 Sector | Code | Performance over June 2022 |
| Consumer Discretionary | XDJ | (-7.4%) |
| Energy | XEJ | (-0.3%) |
| Financials | XFJ | (-11.87%) |
| Health Care | XHJ | (-3.1%) |
| Information Technology | XIJ | (-11%) |
| Materials | XMJ | (-12.4%) |
| Metals and Mining | XMM | (-13.5%) |
| Industrials | XNJ | (-5%) |
| A-REIT | XPJ | (-11.6%) |
| Consumer Staples | XSJ | 0.2% |
| Communications | XTJ | (-3.6%) |
| Utilities | XUJ | (-7.8%) |
| Financials ex-A-REIT | XXJ | (-11.9%) |
| Resources | XJR | (-10.6%) |
| All Technology | XTX | (-10.3%) |
So as you can see, the broad ASX 200 falls that we've seen have flowed through to most sectors of the ASX 200, with only one sector recording a gain over the month That was the consumer staples sector. Consumer staples shares include the companies that primarily sell food, drinks, household goods and alcohol. The largest of these are of course Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) and Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL).
Due to their 'safe' or 'defensive' reputation, these kinds of companies are often flocked to in times of market turmoil. We certainly saw that at work over June.
ASX 200 energy shares were the second-best performer. Energy shares have been on fire for most of 2022 thanks mostly to rising energy prices. However, crude oil took a hit over June, which is probably why the energy sector saw a small retreat last month.
Which sectors dragged the index down?
Turning to the worst sectors last month, and metals and mining took out the worst performer, followed closely by materials and financials. These sectors are your typical 'risk on' sectors on the ASX 200.
They tend to rise strongly when investor sentiment is positive and fall hard when sentiment turns negative. Well, June was an especially poor month for the ASX 200, so it's perhaps no surprise we see banks and miners take a big hit last month.
To illustrate, check out the share prices of the ASX 200's two largest shares – BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA). BHP shares lost 7.53%, while CBA went backwards by 13.4%.
So that's how the ASX 200 and its sectors fared over June. No doubt investors will be hoping for a far greener July.
