Australia Market ends softer

The Australian share market finished lower on Wednesday, 06 May 2020, snapping two days of winning streak, with big banks, industrials like Sydney Airport (SYD), Transurban (TCL) and Qantas (QAN), together with building products makers stocks dominating the losses. Technology stocks, gold miners and healthcare companies stood out. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index declined 22.46 points, or 0.42%, to 5,384.61. The broader All Ordinaries dropped by 13.30 points, or 0.24%, to 5,464.81.

Banks stocks were lower. National Australia Bank ended the day 2.3% lower Westpac and ANZ both declined about 1.5% while Commonwealth Bank dropped 0.8%.

Mesoblast (MSB) surged by 12.5% on news it has kicked off phase 2/3 of a trial treating 300 patients in the US with severe COVID-19 symptoms.

 

Bubs Australia (BUB) jumped 7% after signing an agreement with Coles to start selling its organic grass-fed goat's milk infant formula in 482 supermarkets from early next month.

James Hardie (JHX) fell by 5.6%. The building products maker received a number of price target cuts from brokers this morning following an update it provided yesterday. JHX said it would suspend its dividend until further notice, will cut 375 jobs globally and close some manufacturing plants.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia Retail Sales Spike 8.5% On Month In March - Australia retail sales spiked a seasonally adjusted 8.5% on month in March, coming in at A$30.110 billion, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, following the upwardly revised 0.6% gain in February (originally 0.5%).

CURRENCY NEWS: The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 99.816 after rising from levels below 99.5 seen earlier in the week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.644 after rising from levels below $0.642 earlier in the trading week.

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