Australian stocks suffered a drop on Monday, with the S&P/ASX 200 index finishing 35.9 points lower, or 0.5%, to 7108.8. BHP saw a jump of 1.8% to AUD45.83 as iron ore prices surged, with Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources up 1.1% to AUD2.80 and 5% to AUD11.08 respectively.
Among the laggards were the four major banks, CSL and Wesfarmers.
The US collapse of Silicon Valley Bank played a major role in the Australian share market’s decrease, with local tech stocks like Nitro Software and Life360 confirming exposure to the bank.
However, companies were reportedly able to recover their money, keeping the fall in tech stocks to just 1.3%.
Market experts worked to determine the ramifications of the bank’s collapse, including the possible exposure of vulnerabilities in the financial system due to a year of interest rate hikes.
Economist David Bassanese believed the uncertainty of the event may be enough for central banks to pause rate increases next month.
In response to the Fed’s measures to help stabilise the banking system and assist SVB depositors, Goldman Sachs predicted the central bank would no longer raise interest rates next week.
The ASX narrowed its losses but still finished 0.5% lower for the day.
»Australian stocks suffer a drop, S&P/ASX 200 index finishes 35.9 points lower«
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