The ASX has opened lower today (1 October) after closing Monday at a new high – its seventh in September alone.
The S&P/ASX 200 slid 44.50 points, or 0.54%, to 8,225.30 points at 10:25am AEST.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 1.02% and is currently 0.73% off its 52-week high of 8,269.8 points reached by the closing bell yesterday.
Materials started the new month 0.79% lower, followed by industrials and energy, which edged back 0.15% and 0.05%, respectively. Nine of the 11 sectors were lower on Tuesday.
The bottom performing stocks were dominated by the miners, with iron ore producers Champion Iron (ASX:CIA) and Fortescue (ASX:FMG), uranium miner Boss Energy (ASX:BOE), gold explorer Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) and aluminium giant Alcoa (ASX:AAI) in the bottom five.
Champion slid 3.40%, Boss was down 2.74%, Bellevue dipped 2.65%, Fortescue retreated 2.37%, and Alcoa shifted down 2.31% in early trade.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ASX
