Multibillion-dollar Credit Suisse bailout stems ASX losses

Here’s your five-minute guide to the trading day and how the experts saw it.

The Australian sharemarket managed to claw back some of its losses after plunging at the open on Thursday as a fresh banking crisis – this time at global giant Credit Suisse – sent jitters across the global banking sector.

The numbers:
After sinking more than 2 per cent this morning and wiping more than $40 billion from the index, the S&P/ASX 200 closed down 1.5 per cent, or 103.4 points, to 6965.5 points, weighed down primarily by energy and materials stocks.

The lifters:
Liontown Resources was the day’s greatest gainer, rising 4.5 per cent, followed by gold miner St Barbara and Auckland International Airport (AIA), up 4.4 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively. Healthcare stocks were the lone bright spot on the bourse today, with the sector up by 1.5 per cent.

The laggards:
Intellectual property services company IPH was the biggest loser, sinking 10.6 per cent, with Fletcher Building and Coronado Global Resources also at the bottom of the pack, down 7.4 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively.

Other than healthcare and communication services (which lifted 0.4 per cent), every sector of the ASX200 finished in the red. Each of the four banks declined, with Commonwealth Bank sliding 0.1 per cent, NAB down 1.7 per cent, Westpac losing 2.1 per cent and ANZ declining 2.5 per cent.

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The lowdown:
The latest concerns around Swiss investment banking giant Credit Suisse following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last Friday and general uncertainty about interest rate rises have made investors nervous, keeping volatility lingering in global markets, said SG Hiscock & Company portfolio manager Hamish Tadgell.

“It is not surprising given the aggressive and co-ordinated tightening we have seen over the last 18 months that we are starting to see some things break,” he said.