At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 declined 18.78 points, or 0.26%, to 7,335.92. The broader All Ordinaries fell 15.22 points, or 0.2%, to 7,616.63.
Total 9 of 11 sectors ended lower along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Healthcare (down 1.4%) was worst performing sector, followed by information technology (down 1.18%) real estate (down 1.14%), financials (down 0.69%), and industrials (down 0.57%) sectors, while materials (up 1.36%) was top performing sector, followed by Utilities (up 0.72%) sector.
The best performing stocks in the S&P/ASX200 were ARB Corporation (up 7.22%), ST Barbara (up 7%), Spark Infrastructure (up 6.05%), Whitehaven Coal (up 4.6%), and Netwealth Group (up 4.1%), while the bottom performing stocks were Polynovo (down 8.7%), ZIP Co (down 5.6%), Nuix (down 4.9%), Credit Corp Group (down 4.7%), and The A2 Milk Co (down 4.5%).
The outbreak in Australia continued to deepen today, with NSW recording 65 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, while Victoria is entering a snap lockdown from tonight after recording another 10 cases today. As per reports, Melbourne would follow Sydney into a lockdown, as the outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant threatens to take hold in the Victorian capital.
ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia Jobless Rate Eases To 4.9% In June- Australia jobless rate came in at a seasonally adjusted 4.9% in June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, down from 5.1% in May. The Australian economy added 29.100 jobs last month to 13,154,200 following the increase of 115,200 jobs in the previous month. Over the year to June 2021, employment increased by 777,900 people (6.3%). Employment was 159,400 people (1.2%) higher than March 2020.
CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7477 following its bounce yesterday from around $0.744.
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