At lunch on Monday the S&P/ASX 200 index has followed the lead of international markets and sunk deep into the red. At noon the index is down 1.2% to 6,120.2 points.
Here's what has been happening on the ASX 200 on Monday:
Bank shares lower.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and the rest of the big four banks are in the red at lunch. ANZ is the worst performer with a 2.5% decline. Broad market weakness due to global economic growth concerns is largely behind the decline, but news that HSBC is attempting to grow its share of the home lending market won't be helping investor sentiment.
Tech shares are being sold off.
The worst performing area of the market on Monday has been the tech sector. At lunch the S&P/ASX 200 Info Tech index is down 3.2% following a selloff of U.S. tech stocks on Friday night. The Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price is leading the way with a decline of over 7% at the time of writing.
Gold miners charge higher.
Investors have been quick to rotate back to risk off assets today. This has led to Australian gold miners such as Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) and St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM) charging higher. Newcrest's shares are up 2.5% and the St Barbara share price has rebounded over 3% higher. A broker upgrade by Goldman Sachs may have given the latter an additional boost. The S&P/ASX All Ords Gold index is up 1.9%.
Westpac update.
The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price is down almost 2% after it announced that its cash earnings in first half of FY 2019 will be reduced by an estimated $260 million due to provisions arising from further work on its customer remediation programs. Approximately 90% relate to issues identified in previous financial years, with around half of the provisions relating to the financial advice business.
Best and worst performers.
St Barbara is the best performer on the ASX 200 at lunch with a 3% gain. This morning Goldman Sachs upgraded the gold miner's shares to a buy rating with a $3.90 price target. The broker believes that Friday's selloff was overdone and has created a buying opportunity. Going the other way is the Eclipx Group Ltd (ASX: ECX) share price which has continued its poor run and is down a further 9%.
