A sea of red engulfed the Australian share market this afternoon with major resources stocks leading the charge sharply lower.
Despite mixed results from global markets on Friday, the local ALL Ordinaries (Index: ^AORD) (ASX: XAO) index trended sharply lower this afternoon, falling 1.2% at the time of writing.
However, some ASX stocks fared much worse than others.
Here are four of the worst performing stocks on the market today.
- Caltex Australia Limited (ASX: CTX) was the worst-performing company amongst the S&P/ASX200 (ASX: XJO) (Index: ^AXJO), falling 9.2%. The catalyst behind the results was news that its largest shareholder, US oil giant Chevron, sold its 50% stake in the business. Despite the record block trade, Caltex says it is business as usual for the service station operator.
- Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO) fell as much as 7% today. It joined a host of fellow ASX-listed iron ore miners in tumbling lower following a 4% drop in the steelmaking ingredient overnight. Atlas Iron is already believed to be under water at the current spot price of $US53.14 per tonne (reflected in the 94% share price drop over the past five years), but with further supply expected to flood the market in coming years, it could get worse yet.
- Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) also felt the pain of falling commodity prices losing 6.84% in share price. Overnight oil prices continued to tumble, with Brent crude now fetching just $US56 per barrel. Whilst that's bad news for oil producers, it's particularly worrying for Santos, which is estimated by analysts at Credit Suisse to have a breakeven price of $US83 per barrel in the years ahead. You can read on Santos more here.
- Origin Energy Ltd (ASX: ORG) shares were also under selling pressure today, drifting 4.3% lower. Like Santos, some analysts believe Origin could be under significant balance sheet pressure in the current low oil price environment.
