The Australian sharemarket fell from a record high on Wednesday after the stunning rally in precious metals hit a wall, sending the gold price tumbling by the most in 12 years.
The S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 76.5 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 9018.2 by lunchtime, just one day after the sharemarket was boosted by Australia’s critical minerals deal with US President Donald Trump.
Materials were by far the weakest of the seven sectors in the red after spot gold prices slumped as much as 6.3 per cent and silver dropped up to 8.7 per cent as traders moved to lock in profits.
“The plunge has brought an abrupt halt to a surge that has seen gold reach record highs over the past week,” ANZ’s Brian Martin and Daniel Hynes told clients. “Since the start of September, it has gained 26 per cent as investors piled into the sector amid rising expectations of outsized interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.”
While ANZ said the long-term drivers for gold remain in place, investors were swift to take some money off the table. Heavyweight BHP fell 1.8 per cent, while Newmont dived 9.9 per cent and Bellevue Gold 11 per cent. Ramelius Resources is off 11 per cent.
Those losses were offset by gains in the energy sector, with Woodside up 3 per cent after it posted an increase in quarterly production to 50.8 million barrels of oil and raised its output guidance.
Financials were also higher as Pinnacle Investment Management climbed 4.3 per cent on a plan to acquire up to a 13 per cent stake in Advantage Partners, Japan’s largest independent private markets platform. The big four banks were all modestly higher.
Stock in focus
In company news, 4DMedical gained 5.3 per cent after securing its first commercial deployment of CT:VQ at Stanford University, marking the start of its US rollout following Food and Drug Administration clearance of the respiratory imaging technology.
Online luxury retailer Cettire was flat after earlier rallying as much as 2.1 per cent, boosted by an 18 per cent lift in revenue outside the US in the September quarter, with the average order value higher at $907. Overall sales revenue still shrank 3 per cent to $150.3 million from the US tariffs.
Homewares group Adairs dropped 6 per cent after it forecast group sales for the first half to now land between $319.5 million and $331.5 million, slightly below prior guidance.
And Air New Zealand fell 1 per cent. The airline expects to post a pre-tax loss in the first half of between $NZ30 million and $NZ55 million because of weaker-than-expected revenue and rising costs.
