Market takes another tumble

THE Australian sharemarket fell for the second straight day after another negative lead from Wall Street, where tech stocks were hammered, rubbing off on our local stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ ASX200 index finished 0.74 per cent lower at 6710.8 while the All Ordinaries Index slumped 0.82 per cent to 6943.

However, the ASX200 still finished the week 0.56 per cent higher, said CommSec.

OpenMarkets Group chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said Friday’s fall followed an extremely volatile session on US markets, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq “almost technically in correction territory” as investors became very edgy about rising interest rates.

He said the ASX200 had endured a lacklustre week, with tech stocks – particularly the buy-now-pay-later sector – hit the hardest. BNPL market leader Afterpay dipped 2.47 per cent to $115.40 while smaller rival Zip Co sank 5.25 per cent to $9.56.

Software company Wisetech retreated 1.93 per cent to $26.94 and online business platform provider Xero gave up 2.36 per cent to $113.17, a day after announcing it was acquiring workforce management tool Planday.

CommSec analyst Steve Daghlian said a rare bright spot on the local bourse was the energy sector after the oil price lifted by 4.2 per cent following a meeting of oil producing nations, which surprisingly agreed to keep their output targets steady into next month.

Santos rose 4.72 per cent to $7.76, Oil Search appreciated 4.99 per cent to $4.42 and Woodside Petroleum gained 3.12 per cent to $25.46.