As anyone who has glanced at the markets today would know, this Tuesday has been a rather depressing day of trading for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). The ASX 200 finished the day down a nasty 1%. A fall of that nature will inevitably have some shares falling harder than others. But some ASX 200 shares have actually hit new 52-week lows as a result of today's losses.
But as any value investor would tell you, market malaise over a company can sometimes be a compelling buying opportunity for the brave investors out there. Especially if said shares are of a high calibre.
So let's check out five ASX 200 shares that hit new 52-week lows today.
5 ASX 200 shares hitting new 52-week lows today
GQG Partners Inc (ASX: GQG)
Funds management company GQG is our first share to check out today. This relative ASX newcomer had a shocker during today's trading session. The company's shares closed the session down by a nasty 7.28% at $1.40 apiece.
But, earlier, this share hit a new 52-week low of $1.38. GQG only listed on the ASX back in October last year, so this 52-week low is also an all-time low.
Xero Limited (ASX: XRO)
ASX 200 tech share Xero is well-known to investors now, thanks in part to its historic membership of the old WAAAX group of high-flying tech shares. Unfortunately, Xero's flying patterns are more akin to Icarus' these days. At market close, Xero's share price finished at $98.49.
But the online accounting software company hit a low of $96.29 a share earlier this afternoon. As you might have gathered, that's a new 52-week low for Xero, and more than 37% away from the company's all-time high of $156.65 that we saw only back in November. But to put things in context, Xero only hit these sorts of levels for the first time in mid-2020.
Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX :WES)
The giant ASX 200 industrial and retailing conglomerate Wesfarmers is next up. This blue chip stalwart of the ASX also had a clanger today. It closed the session down 3.86% at $48.40 a share.
But Wesfarmers went as low as $48.14 soon after market open this morning, the company's new low watermark. Again, we've come a long way from Wesfarmers' last high of over $67 that we saw in August last year. Today's fall has pushed the Wesfarmers dividend yield over 3.5%.
Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P)
The ASX's largest buy now, pay later (BNPL) pureplay, Zip Co was also in the doldrums today. This ASX 200 share saw a horrible 9.7% wiped off its share price today. It closed at $2.14.
But Zip went as low as $2.12 this afternoon, which is the company's new 52-week low. What a year it's been for Zip. The company is now down close to 83% from this time last year when Zip was commanding a share price north of $13.
Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co Ltd (ASX: SOL)
Soul Patts is our final share that got washed today. The company's losses were not too steep though, down 0.35% at $25.63 a share.
Saying that, this morning was more brutal, seeing this conglomerate descending as low as $25.21 a share — you guessed it, a new 52-week low. It was only in September last year that Soul Patts was more than $40 a share, so this has been a sharp fall from grace for this company.
