Aussie shares sink after Wall St plunge on coronavirus fears

THE Australian share market has plunged for the second day in a row, snapping a string of six consecutive winning weeks as fears rose about a second wave of coronavirus cases in the US.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index regained some of its losses after being down as much as 3.4 per cent before noon to close down 112.8 points, or 1.89 per cent, at 5847.8 points.

The All Ordinaries index finished down 119.6 points, or 1.97 per cent, at 5959.9.

The fall came after the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1862 points, or 6.9 per cent, and the S&P 500 fell 188 points, or 5.9 per cent. With Thursday’s 3.1 per cent drop – which snapped a string of seven winning days – the ASX200 finished the week down 2.5 per cent, for its first losing week since the week ending April 24.

Bell Direct market analyst Jessica Amir blamed a rising number of coronavirus cases in half a dozen US states, including Texas and Arizona. “Markets don’t like surprises, even though we’ve talked about this for a long time,” she said.

“Analysts and fund managTHE ers were saying this was a key risk – and then it happened,” Ms Amir said.

The market also didn’t appreciate US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warning of a “long road” to recovery, souring the idea of a Vshaped bounce-back.

Every ASX sector was lower yesterday with energy the worst hit, falling four per cent, as Brent crude dropped 2.8 per cent to just over $US37 a barrel. Woodside fell 5.3 per cent to $21.37 while Santos and Oil Search, Origin Energy and Beach Energy dropped between 3.6 and 5.7 per cent.