ASX 200 weekly wrap: BHP, CBA, ANZ, Westpac slide

The ASX 200 suffered its biggest weekly fall in three years last week, driven by heavy losses on the US share market.

All sectors of the local share market closed lower last week with energy leading losses amid oil price falls followed by steep declines across the healthcare, telecommunications and the financials’ sectors.

The benchmark index S&P/ASX200 fell 4.68% to 5,895.7 points and the All Ordinaries tumbled 4.67% to 6,006.6 points over the course of last week.

Canstar’s General Manager of Wealth Josh Callaghan said last week’s sell-off drove the ASX 200 below 6,000 points; a level it has not been at since April this year.

“A sharp sell-off in the US market seemed to spook the local market with investors taking some profit from their growth stocks such as Afterpay, Wisetech Global and CSL, and moving money into gold stocks with Evolution Mining, St Barbara and Regis Resources,” Mr Callaghan said.

He said driving this was an unexpected jump in the 10-year US Treasury note which in turn adjusted investors’ growth expectations and lowered how much they were willing to pay for certain stocks.

However he said the US share market has had its longest bull run in history and we were now 10 years on from the Global Financial Crisis which has increased talk of a market correction.

“A number of stocks on the US market are still trading at eye-watering multiples of earnings and book value,” Mr Callaghan said.

“In my view this sell-off probably gave some investors the wake-up call needed to reconsider their valuations.”

Another factor weighing on investors’ risk appetite was the US-China trade tensions, he added.

BHP Billiton had more than $5.3 billion wiped from its market value after the mining giant’s share price dropped 4.7% to $33.84 last week.

Three of the big four banks also took solid hits to their market values, with Commonwealth Bank and ANZ shedding around $5.2 billion each, while Westpac’s market value dropped by $3.6 billion.

When it comes to share price declines, real estate giant Domain led the pack with a 19.7% decline to $2.77 per share after reporting at its annual general meeting total revenue had been impacted by lower listing and auction volumes.

Media and entertainment companies Fairfax and Nine took similar share price hits to Domain after also revealing weak trading updates as part of the merger plan between the companies.

While the materials sector finished lower, gold miners Evolution Mining and St Barbara and iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group posted the week’s biggest share price gains.

Among the best performers was accounting software group MYOB with its share price up 18.1% following a buyout offer from private equity firm KKR & Co.