Still in the red: Aus shares close 0.08 per cent lower

The Australian Sharemarket partially recovered from some of its early losses but overall remained down, closing just over the 7300 mark. This follows on from a downwards trend during Mondays trade. In the last hour of trade, the Asia-Pacific market continued on a downwards spiral and Wall street remained volatile.

In the last hour of trade, Energy, Utilities and Real Estate remained in negative territory along with Materials and Industrials. Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL), BHP Group (ASX:BHP) and APA Group (ASX:APA)  all edged lower.

Information Technology, Health Care and Consumer Staples bounced back from a bad start this morning. Xero Limited (ASX:XRO) closed 0.84 per cent higher, joining Afterpay’s strong performance throughout the day. Sonic Health Care (ASX:SHL) closed 1.85 per cent higher and CSL (ASX:CSL) 0.65 per cent higher.

Major retailers Woolworths and Coles, were also amongst the gains today, with Woolworths (ASX:WOW) 0.29 per cent higher and Coles (ASX:COL) 0.65 per cent higher at the closing bell. 

Banks also made a slight comeback, closing in positive territory with Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) trading 0.42 per cent higher at the end of trade.

At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.08 per cent or 6.10 points lower at 7301.20.

Futures

The Dow Jones futures are pointing to a rise of 12.00 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a fall of 3.25 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a fall of 29.00 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 10 points when the market next opens.

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector was Information Technology, up 0.65 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Utilities, down 1.26 per cent.

The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Metcash (ASX:MTS), closing 5.69 per cent higher at $3.90. It was followed by shares in Nuix (ASX:NXL) and Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC).

The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Collins Foods (ASX:CKF), closing 5.67 per cent lower at $11.98. It was followed by shares in Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (ASX:URW) and Nufarm (ASX:NUF).

Asian markets

Japan's Nikkei has lost 0.84 per cent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng has lost 0.75 per cent.
China's Shanghai Composite has lost 0.81 per cent.

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$1777.59 an ounce.
Iron ore is 1.00 per cent higher at US$218.62 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a fall of 1.60 per cent.
Light crude is trading $0.10 lower at US$72.81 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 75.64 US cents.