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Aussie shares have started the week on a softer footing with the ASX 200 losing 62 points or 1% to 6123 heading to lunch. The local bourse was not helped by losses on Wall Street weighed by a jump in US treasury yields.
Nearly three quarters of the top 200 stocks are in the red with losses across nearly all sectors. The main drags have come from the financials and materials with the heavyweight sectors also experiencing the largest percentage falls.
Miners are generally weaker on softer commodity prices with aluminium miners are among the biggest losers. There were supply concerns for aluminium last week which drove up the price of the metal and supported South32 (S32) and Alumina (AWC). The supply concerns have since been downplayed somewhat, which has seen the two stocks pullback. S32 is down 5% while is declining 6%. BHP is the biggest drag in the sector, losing 2%.
The financial sector is also facing downward pressure with all the major lenders in negative territory. ANZ Bank (ANZ) is leading the losses, sliding 2.4% following $824 million in impairments and one off expenses to negatively impact FY18 profit. The charges relate to customer refunds and remediation costs along with asset write-downs and restructuring costs. ANZ releases detailed FY18 results on 31 October 2018.
In other news, accounting software firm MYOB (MYO) is surging 20% after receiving a conditional takeover offer from private equity firm KKR for $2.2 billion. KKR recently bought ~17.6% of MYO shares from Bain Capital, taking its holding to 19.9%, and is looking to buy the remaining units at $3.70/share.
Medical Developments (MVP) is jumping 9% after signing a distribution deal for its pain relief product Penthrox (green whistle) in parts of Asia with Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo. MVP will receive $21.1 million up front and could receive up to $45.8 million in total.
Job ads fell 0.8% in September following a revised fall of 0.7% in August. The Aussie dollar has traded on the defensive and is down towards US70.5 cents.
So far, 0.9B units have traded worth $1.4B with 367 stocks higher, 571 stocks lower and 348 unchanged.
Published by James Tao, CommSec