‘Not alone’: ASX falls in line with global market in huge sell-off

It was a sea of red on the Australian sharemarket with more than $55bn wiped off in a single day’s trading.

The benchmark ASX 200 dropped 180.40 points or 2.03 per cent to 8,708.80, while the broader All Ordinaries slumped 200.30 points or 2.19 per cent to 8,954.60.

It was the biggest one day fall since the Liberation Day tariffs were announced by US President Donald Trump on April 2 2025.

Australia’s dollar bounced up 0.58 per cent to buy 69.55 US cents.

The sell-off was across the board as all 11 sectors traded in the red, technology stocks, commodity prices and AI concerns dragging down the market.

IG market analyst Tony Sycamore told NewsWire it was a broad market sell-off across all assets in a broad “contagious” impact which started last Saturday in the precious metals market.

“The ASX 200 had a bad day but it is not alone,” he said.

“Asian markets are down, metal prices have been absolutely cremated during periods, Bitcoin as well as been taken to the cleaners.

“It is a pretty brutal re-evaluation of what is going on in the world.”

Last Saturday, more than $US15 trillion ($A21 trillion) was wiped from the gold and silver price over 24 hours.

Mr Sycamore said every asset besides stock indices have imploded, with today being “fireworks” to finish off an “ugly trading week”.

“When you get a shakeout like this in a market, you can’t just think silver and gold are going to go back and it is a two-day event,” he said.

“You have a crash and things don’t just become bright and normal again.”

Financials and healthcare shares were the best performing, even as they fell by 1.37 and 1.17 per cent respectively.

Commonwealth Bank shares slipped 0.23 per cent to $158.91, Westpac dropped 1.20 per cent to $39.43, NAB dragged 1.57 per cent to $43.36 and ANZ finished 1.52 per cent lower at $37.01.

Blood plasma giant CSL shares slid 0.41 per cent to $180.50, Sigma Healthcare declined 0.95 per cent to $3.13 and ResMed jumped 1.23 per cent to $37.92.

The materials sector continued its sell off, with uranium stocks heavily hit on fears there may not need to be a boom in nuclear power.

Paladin Energy shares slumped 10.92 per cent to $11.01, Deep Yellow plunged 12 per cent to $2.20 and NextGen Energy dragged 5.63 per cent to $15.60.

Singaporean iron ore futures also fell back below $US100 a tonne, to a six month low of $US99.50.

BHP shares slumped 3.12 per cent to $48.79 and Fortescue Metals fell 1.16 per cent to $21.23.

Rio Tinto shares traded flat at $157.08 after the mining conglomerate walked away from a $300bn merger with Glencore.

Hotel room provider Web Travel shares were hammered down 29.52 per cent to $2.96 after telling the market it was being audited by the Spanish tax authority.

Digital property advertiser REA Group shares also slumped 7.83 per cent to $168.10 on Friday after missing analysts revenue expectations and a weaker outlook. The business says profits rose 6 per cent year-on-year to $569m for the first half of 2026.