Local sharemarket suffers on back of G20 jitters

THE Australian share market suffered significant losses across the board yesterday, with consumer and banking stocks weighing the heaviest as world leaders descended on Argentina for critical trade discussions at the G20 summit.

The benchmark ASX 200 index closed down 91.2 points, or 1.6 per cent, at 5667.2, while the broader All Ordinaries lost 1.5 per cent, or 86.4 points, to 5749.3.

The summit in Buenos Aires has snowballed into a dramatic risk sentiment as investors wait on information to flow from meetings between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

But Rakuten Securities Australia chief operating offi- cer Nick Twidale said markets would also be dictated by discussions on oil involving Russia, Saudia Arabia and other key players.

“It feels like a toss up at the moment whether we’re going to get a positive risk sentiment and US and China come into some sort of accord,” Mr Twidale said. “Or if we get a negative sentiment, they really hold firm and we see them push off against each other.”

Consumer staples was the worst-performing sector, dragged down more than 4 per cent by a number of its heavyhitters including Coca-Cola Amatil, which slid more than 14 per cent to $8.84 following news it plans to sell its lossmaking SPC unit.

Coles continued its weak run since listing as a standalone business, and fell 5.5 per cent to $11.71, rival supermarket chain Woolworths lost 3.1 per cent to $28.92, and Treasury Wine Estates fell 4.7 per cent to $14.15.

The financial sector was also a consistent drag on the indices with Westpac suffering the biggest loss of the big four lenders, 1.7 per cent to $25.97, and NAB the least — 1.1 per cent to $24.64.

Macquarie Group wasn’t spared either, losing 2.1 per cent to $114.42.

The big miners were mixed. BHP fell 0.9 per cent to $30.69 and Fortescuelost 0.7 per cent to $4 respectively. Rio Tinto was flat at $73.28, while BlueScope climbed 0.6 per cent to $11.23.