At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 71.72 points, or 0.94%, to 7,511.03. The broader All Ordinaries dropped 76.28 points, or 0.97%, to 7,773.35.
Total 8 of 11 sectors were lower along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Health Care was the best performing sector, gaining +0.44%, while financial was the worst performing sector, losing 1.73%.
Financial stocks were lower, with Westpac Banking shares down 1.3% after the bank expects its margins in the second half of 2021 to be lower. Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 3.5%.
Shares of miners were also down, with BHP Group dipped 1.4% ahead of the global miner's full-year earnings announcement during after-market hours. Santos weakened 0.8% despite announcing record half-yearly production and sales volume and more than doubling its interim dividend.
ECONOMIC NEWS: Minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's August monetary policy meeting, released Tuesday, showed the central bank acknowledging that the recent outbreaks of the delta variant had interrupted the recovery which is pressuring the currency lower. Members therefore considered the case for delaying the tapering of bond purchases to $4 billion a week currently scheduled for September 2021. They noted that the outlook for the economy is for a resumption of strong growth in 2022. The central bank reaffirmed the existing policy settings to maintain the cash rate target at 10 basis points and the interest rate on Exchange Settlement balances of zero per cent, maintain the target of 10 basis points for the April 2024 Australian Government bond and to continue to purchase government securities at the rate of $5 billion a week until early September 2021 and then $4 billion a week until at least mid November 2021.
CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7295, following yesterday's drop from above $0.735.
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