At lunch on Friday the S&P/ASX 200 index is on course to end the week on a disappointing note. At the time of writing the benchmark index is down 0.5% to 6,652.7 points.
Here's what has been happening on the market today:
Bank shares tumble.
One of the main drags on the market on Friday has been the banking sector. All the big four banks are trading notably lower at lunch, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price down 1%. As well as general weakness in the sector, its shares may be under additional pressure due to yet another network outage. This impacted services including BPAY, its online payment platform Netbank, and the CommBank app.
IOOF charges higher again.
The IOOF Holdings Limited (ASX: IFL) share price has stormed higher for a second day in a row. On Thursday it raced higher following an update on its acquisition of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) Wealth Pension and Investments business. Today's catalyst has been news that APRA will not be appealing the recent Federal Court decision.
Afterpay sinks again.
It has been another disappointing day of trade for the Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) share price. The payments company's shares are down almost 7% at lunch. Which means that they are now down over 18% since UBS slapped a sell rating and $17.25 price target on them on Wednesday.
Best and worst performers.
The best performer on the ASX 200 index on Friday has been the Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS) share price. The provider of software products and services to the wealth management and funds administration industries has seen its shares race over 5% higher despite there being no news out of it. Going the other way is the St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM) share price with a 7% decline. This morning the gold miner downgraded its production guidance for FY 2020 due to issues at Gwalia.
