The Australian share market has extended its morning losses, with falls across the energy, financials, consumer staples and communications sectors.
Building on Tuesday’s steep falls but tempered by Wall Street’s flat session overnight, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 1.78 per cent at 1220 AEDT.
Amid a sea of red, Commonwealth Bank was the only positive among the big four banks. Its shares were up 0.3 per cent at $73.08 after it announced another record cash profit.
Meanwhile, both the National Australia Bank and ANZ were down more than three per cent.
The mining giants were also helping to drag the market lower.
BHP was down three per cent at $15.55, while Rio Tinto was around two per cent worse off at $41.20.
Among the retailers, Woolworths had fallen 3.5 per cent to $22.28 while Coles owner Wesfarmers was down nearly two per cent at $42.
Telstra was trading 2.6 per cent lower in the wake of Tuesday’s major power outage.
Building products company Boral was one of the few companies in positive territory, although its early near five per cent lift had eased to just over two per cent. Its shares were trading at $5.25.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1220 AEDT on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 85.5 points, or 1.78 per cent, at 4746.3 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 82.2 points, or 1.68 per cent, at 4,800 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was down 86 points at 4,689 points, with 28,830 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 22.2 million securities traded, worth $65.8 billion.
