The Australian sharemarket is trading in the red for the third consecutive day with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) plunging another 1% to 5581 points.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the nation's largest banks have acted as the heaviest weight on the local bourse following the Reserve Bank's latest update on monetary policy yesterday. Each of the banks have fallen in excess of 1% while various other high-yielding stocks have also fallen during the session.
While the market itself is struggling to gain traction; these four stocks are feeling the full extent of the market's wrath…
Retail Food Group Limited (ASX: RFG) has seen more than $60 million wiped from its market capitalisation with the stock falling 6.5% to $5.95. The retailer confirmed that it was on track to achieve full-year underlying earnings of $55 million but also booked an $18.5 million non-cash write-down which investors may be reacting to.
Virtus Health Ltd (ASX: VRT) was downgraded by a number of financial firms including CLSA, Morgans, Macquarie and UBS after it downgraded its earnings guidance yesterday morning. It said that it is on track to achieve "low-to-mid single digit percentage growth", down from previous guidance of "low-to-mid teens" growth. The stock fell another 6.4% to $5.72, extending on its nearly 20% loss from yesterday.
Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX: LNG) has also been out of favour with the market recently, having lost more than 23% since peaking at $5 late in April. Although oil prices actually rose overnight, the stock is down 3.8% for the day which could possibly be attributed to the market's caution ahead of the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting in Vienna on Friday. Depending on the outcome, oil prices could fall considerably.
Vocation Ltd (ASX: VET), has dropped 8.3% to trade at 11 cents, down from 15 cents at the end of last week. On Monday, Australia's embattled education provider said that it could record a loss of up to $3 million for the full-year, while the best case scenario would be a $3 million profit. Investors didn't take kindly to the update and have punished the stock as a result.
