The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) slipped 0.4% lower today to 5,364.20 points as the big four ASX banks dragged the Australian share market lower.
Despite the heavy share price falls, the big four ASX banks are still major contributors to the ASX 200 index performance. So bad days can hurt the overall ASX.
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) share price declined 2%.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price fell 1.9%.
The National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price dropped 2.5%.
The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price fell 2.4%.
March trade surplus at $10.6 billion
Resources are very important for Australia and the ASX 200. Seemingly Australian resource exports of iron, gold and coal performed strongly in the final month of the quarter. Economists had been expecting a surplus of $6.4 billion, so the $10.6 billion number was quite surprising.
Obviously there are several ASX 200 resource shares that are represented in these resource figures like BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO), Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) and so on.
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) conference continues
Plenty of ASX 200 shares have the opportunity to give a presentation at the Macquarie conference.
The share price of Perpetual Limited (ASX: PPT) fell 1.5%.
The Spark Infrastructure Group (ASX: SKI) share price rose 1.8%.
The share price of Caltex Australia Limited (ASX: CTX) rose 0.4%.
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) debt
The ASX 200's biggest company announced it had priced US$750 million of new debt. It had a weighted average interest rate of 2.68% and an average life of 11.5 years.
The money will be used for general corporate purposes and will strengthen its current debt maturity profile.
According to CSL, the debt raising was oversubscribed by investors.
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Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of CSL Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie Group Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
