Australian shares are on track for their lowest close since the start of the month as China's surprise rate hike sends shudders through regional markets.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 54 points or 1.2% at 4601, with all sectors except health trading lower. Hardest hit were resource-sensitive sectors after heavy falls in commodity prices overnight. The gold sector was down 2.3%, metals & mining 1.8% and energy 1.8%. Telecoms were down 1.8% as Telstra hit a new all-time low.
Asian markets fell sharply. Japan's Nikkei was recently down 2.06%, Shanghai 1.63% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.43%. Dow futures were recently at -3.
The Australian dollar, oil and gold recovered a fraction of their overnight losses this morning as the U.S. dollar drifted lower. The dollar was buying 97.38 U.S. cents, up from 96.9 at 7.15 am this morning. Crude oil futures rallied 35 cents this morning to $79.80 a barrel. The spot gold price was $3.20 stronger at $1,335.70 an ounce.
In economic news, a measure of local economic growth eased for the fifth straight month in August but still pointed to above-average growth heading into next year. The WBC-MI leading index clocked annualised growth of 5.3% in August, well ahead of the long-term trend of 3.1% but well down from the index's peak of 10.5% five months ago.
Big red opens like this morning offer great bargain-hunting in the first hour. I'm 6 from 6 after bounce trades in PEK, AVO, MML, ORG, CGF and OST. Was too stingy with another half-dozen buy orders and missed out.
