2LT National News

Shares sold again off in Asia, Australian shares take biggest hit

Mar 19, 2020

SYDNEY, Australia – Stocks were deeply underwater on Thursday in Asia, with the Australian market again leading the way.

The Reserve Bank of Australia cut official interest rates to a record low of 0.25% to help the economy which like elsewhere in the world is in freefall because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Australian dollar which had already plunged below 0.6000 cents overnight, fell a further 4%, at one stage touching 0.5508.

The Australian All Ordinaries shed 189.40 points or 3.79% to 4,809.40. The benchmark index has now lost a third of its value since its February high.

All the other major indices, the Nikkei 225 in Japan, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and China’s Shanghai Composite were in the red, but with more trading time left to rack up more losses before they close.

“We’re in this phase where investors are just looking to liquidate their positions,” Prashant Newnaha, senior interest rate strategist at TD Securities in Singapore told Reuters Thomson Thursday.

The U.S. dollar continued its dominance, extending or consolidating its massive overnight gain.

The euro struggled to regain the 1.0900 level, holding at 1.0901 around the Sydney close Thursday.

The British pound, wounded badly overnight, sank further to 1.1502. The Japanese yen weakened further to 108.84.

The Swiss franc fell to 0.9680.

The Australian dollar was completely abandoned by buyers, fetching just 0.5613 late Thursday. The New Zealand dollar wa salso withoutn friends, falling to a fresh low of 0.5584.