Banks and miners drove the Australian share market higher on Tuesday, despite losses on Wall Street and European markets overnight.
overnight.
The ASX 200 index closed 0.6 per cent higher, at 7,181 points.
Some of today's best performing stocks were coal miners Whitehaven Coal (+7.8 per cent), Coronado Global Resources (+3.9 per cent) and New Hope Corporation (+7.3 per cent), along with lithium stock Pilbara Minerals (+3.4 per cent) and Virgin Money UK (+10.6 per cent).
On the flip side, electronic payments firm Block (-3.2 per cent), De Grey Mining (-2.3 per cent), Silver Lake Resources (-2.1 per cent) and Breville Group (-1.5 per cent) suffered heavy falls.
The Australian dollar was trading at 66.1 US cents, following a 1 per cent slump. This was largely due to a stronger US greenback as traders fled from riskier currencies.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency prices continued to drop, as the fallout from FTX's bankruptcy continues to unfold.
The price of bitcoin sank 5.2 per cent to a two-week low of $US15,777, while US-listed shares of crypto exchange Coinbase plummeted 8.9 per cent to a record low of $US41.23.
It also comes as a spike in COVID-19 cases and newly recorded deaths in China prompted authorities in the world's second-largest economy to reinstate lockdowns, triggering worries over the impact on the global economy.
"It looked like zero COVID was moving in the right direction and everyone was excited, but the Chinese government is taking some strong action and in the short term there's going to be fits and starts," said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital in New York.
Beijing's most-populous district urged residents to stay at home on Monday as the city's COVID-19 case numbers rose, while at least one district in Guangzhou was locked down for five days.
"There is this fear that China might reinstitute some of the COVID restrictions that they've just purportedly started to lift," said Carol Schleif, deputy chief investment officer at BMO Family Office.
"That's a piece of what's driving the tech stocks down because we rely so much on China and Taiwan for critical components."
Global markets retreat
On Wall Street, all three major indexes were dragged down by a sell-off in technology, energy and consumer discretionary stocks.
The Dow Jones index closed 0.1 per cent lower, at 33,700 points, while the S&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent to 3,950, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.1 per cent to 11,025.
Shares of Walt Disney Co jumped 6.2 per cent after the entertainment giant rehired Bob Iger as its chief executive, as its streaming service posted a record loss.
Tesla's stock dropped 6.8 per cent after the electric car maker said it will recall vehicles in the United States over an issue that may cause tail lights to intermittently fail to illuminate.
In Europe, Britain's FTSE and Germany's DAX slipped by 0.1 and 0.4 per cent, respectively.
Oil prices were volatile, and briefly sank to a 10-month low on concerns of lower Chinese fuel demand, owing to that country's COVID-19 lockdowns, along with reports that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members are holding talks on potentially increasing their output.
Brent crude futures fell 0.1 per cent, to $US87.56 a barrel. It was a huge improvement considering the benchmark oil price fell by more than 5 per cent, at its worst point overnight.
"With oil, there's always the supply and demand picture and right now the market is looking for some insight on the demand side," said Cliff Hodge, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"Typically, oil demand will plummet going into a slowdown or global recession, especially this year, which we think is going to be somewhat exacerbated by China," Hodge added.
Spot gold dropped 0.7 per cent, to a one-week low of $US1,738.17 an ounce.
ABC/Reuters
