A rally in energy stocks failed to stop a slight fall in the Australian sharemarket, which tracked a finish on Wall Street after a sell-off in the US tech giants and heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed down 27 points, 0.3 per cent, to 8565.1 points after paring back an early gain. Seven out of 11 sectors climbed, led by energy stocks, but banks fell.
The S&P 500 finished down 0.3 per cent after a volatile session. It was bolstered earlier in the day by the latest US-China trade talks and a muted US consumer price inflation report before finishing lower. Apple dropped 2 per cent.
In commodities, oil spiked 5 per cent towards $US70 a barrel, while gold rose by almost 1 per cent after President Donald Trump said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium. Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said that if Iran were subjected to strikes, it would retaliate by hitting US bases in the region.
On the ASX, Woodside Energy fell 0.2 per cent to $23.5. Santos rose 0.2 per cent to $6.7.
Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, and ANZ all made a small drop of less than one per cent.
Gold miners climbed with a rise in the precious metal. Northern Star Resources gained 1.2 per cent to close at $21.4, while Newmont jumped 3 per cent to $83.2.
On the other side of the ledger, the big iron ore giants tracked a weaker iron ore price. BHP dropped by 1.8 per cent to $38.3 while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals fell 1.65 per cent to $107.6 and 3.4 per cent to $15.7, respectively.
In corporate news, Cettire was among the worst performers, tanking 31.2 per cent to 32¢ after chief executive Dean Mintz warned of weaker demand in the US. The discount luxury retailer reported a 1.7 per cent increase in sales revenue to $693.8 million in the full year.
Monash IVF rose by 9.1 per cent to 66¢ after announcing chief executive Michael Knaap had resigned following the company reporting its second embryo incident in as many months.
Cochlear shares rose 0.7 per cent to $272.3 despite the hearing implant company downgrading its earnings guidance to between $390 million and $400 million from the range of $410 million to $430 million following slower-than-expected sales growth this year.
Myer shares fell 0.7 per cent to 69¢ after the department store reported long-serving director Jacquie Naylor would retire from its board after six years at the end of June.
Building group Johns Lyng dropped back 2 per cent to $2.9 after rocketing 17.7 per cent on Wednesday, having confirmed reports in The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column of a non-binding indicative offer proposal from Pacific Equity Partners.
And Betmakers dropped by 13 per cent to 10¢ after the betting technology company announced it completed a placement that raised $11.5 million, at a discount of 10 cents per share.
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