ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX 200 hits 4 straight weeks of losses

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has just notched up its fourth week in a row in the red, giving investors another hefty 1.1% loss for the week. It caps off a wild and furious month, which has seen the ASX 200 index fluctuate between 6,167 points and the 5,859 points the index finished up at on Friday.

We now start this week at the lowest point the ASX has seen since early June – not exactly a comfortable position for investors to be in. The last time the ASX 200 had four weeks in the red, it was back in February and March and we all know how that felt. Thankfully, the past four weeks haven't been anything close to how the markets were in March, but we still aren't going in the direction that most of us would like.

So the ASX was again dominated last week by the (frankly) crazy levels of volatility we saw over in the United States, particularly from tech shares. We saw moves of more than 8% over just a day or two in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares last week, just to give some context (no mean feat for a US$2 trillion+ company). And Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) – perhaps the poster-child for tech volatility these days – saw its shares fall by more than 16% on Tuesday (US time), backed up by an 11% rise the following day.

It was ASX tech shares as well as some blue chips that were the big draggers on the index last week. The S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) was down more than 3% last week, as buy now, pay later (BNPL) shares blew off steam. Combining the general tech shares sell-off with news that both Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) are launching no-interest credit card products with a BNPL spin cooled the payments space significantly. Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) shares were down 5.54% for the week, while Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) shed 11.4%, including 6.7% on Friday alone.

It's also worth mentioning that shares of mining giant Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) were up 4.48% for the week. It followed an announcement on Friday that its CEO JS Jacques will be stepping down in the fallout over the company's much-criticised destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

How did the markets end the week?

It was another topsy-turvy week for ASX 200 shares. As we flagged earlier, the ASX 200 index fell 1.12% for the week, after opening at 5,925.5 points on Monday and closing at 5,859.4 points on Friday. Monday saw a good start to the week with a 0.3% gain, which was doubled down on Tuesday with a substantial 1.1% rise. But it was all downhill from there (and not in a good way). Wednesday brought with it a nasty 2.2% slide, which was countered on Thursday with a 0.5% rebound. But Friday saw another day of selling, with ASX 200 shares losing another 0.83%.

Meanwhile, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) also slumped 1.14% after falling from 6,108.8 points on Monday to 6,038.9 points by Friday.

Which ASX 200 shares were the biggest winners and losers?

Time to get the kettle on for our Foolish gossip pages. So let's see which ASX shares were making investors the happiest and the saddest last week. As always, we'll start with the losers:

Taking out last week's wooden spoon was aerial mapping company Nearmap. Nearmap has been issuing shares as part of a capital raising which concluded last week and appears to be the primary catalyst for this company's drop. Remember, a capital raising decreases the value of a company's shares by increasing the supply.

Next up we had utility provider Origin. There was no major news out of Origin last week, but the company is now down around 20% over the past month. Clearly, investors haven't found a bottom for this falling knife just yet.

ASX 200 gold miner Resolute was next up on investors' hit list. A lacklustre gold price in recent weeks, as well as problems in one of the company's mines in Mali, appear to be behind this share's 11% fall.

Lastly, Graincorp was also under pressure after some negative broker notes out last week, despite no major news out of this company either.

Now with the losers out of the way, let's have a look at the week's winning shares:

Leading last week's gainers was chemical manufacturer Nufarm, despite (again) no major news out of the company. Nufarm was the beneficiary of some positive broker notes, however, which is probably the reason behind its near 13% gain.

Next up we had biopharma company Clinuvel, which got investors excited when it announced it plans on expanding the range of potential applications for its flagship Scenesse product.

Telecom Vocus was next up, and there's no obvious reason why Vocus shares rose 7.9% last week. The shares have been on a bit of a run lately (up more than 25% in the past month), so perhaps some investors are just jumping on the bandwagon with this one.

Finally, we had steel recycler Sims, which benefitted from some positive broker attention.

What does this week look like for the ASX 200?

After the volatility of the past few weeks, predicting what this week might have in store is even more of a fool's game than usual. I'll be (once again) watching the US markets this week, as they seem to be setting the ASX's agenda these days. Tech shares have been front and centre of the action recently, so I would wager that watching what Apple, Tesla and other big US tech names are doing this week will give us a fair sense of how the ASX 200 is going to travel. Especially with tech and BNPL shares like Afterpay.

Other than that, it's still a sea of relative calm on the ASX boards after the wild earnings month we've just endured in terms of news and company developments. So nothing more to do now than grab the popcorn, fellow investors!

But before you do, here's a snapshot into how the major ASX 200 blue chip shares are looking as we start a new week: