End of Day Report – Friday 1 August: ASX 200 drops 81, unchanged for the week | Banks slide

The ASX 200 fell hard down 81 points to 8663 (-0.9%) to close the week, pretty much where it started. Banks which had been holding their end up, succumbed to gravity with CBA down 1.6% and NAB falling 1.2% as the Big Bank Basket dropped to $277.82 (-1.3%). MQG fell hard down 1.7% with insurers also under pressure, QBE down 1.3% and SUN off 1.5%. REITs eased back, GMG down 1.5% and SCG off 0.5% with industrials weak across the board. WES fell 0.9% and ALL down 1.2% with patches of green in retail, JBH up 0.8%. FLT bounced back a little up % and QAN up 0.3%. Tech stocks smacked hard, WTC down 2.6% and XRO falling 3.5% with the All-Tech Index down 1.8%. Healthcare hit with CSL down 2.5% on tariff news.  

Resources which have been hurtie all week saw some buyers return. Iron ore picked up in Asia, BHP unchanged and FMG up 1.1%. Rare earths saw some buying LYC up 3.3% and MIN up 4.4% in the lithium space. PLS too rallied 4.1%. Gold miners fell, EVN down 0.8% and NEM off 0.5%.  Uranium stocks tried to find some support after the fallout of the BOE downgrade this week. PDN up 0.5% BOE down another 2.0%. Oil and gas flat.  In corporate news, SGR dimmed 16.5% on news that the Brisbane deal was off. RMD up 1.0% on better-than-expected quarterly. SOL and BKW reported with decent dividends and a step closer to a marriage. DOW unchanged despite a new contract and BGL fell 4.3% on production worse than expected. 

In economic news, local PPI rose 0.7%. NFP tonight from US. 147k is the number.

European futures down 0.6%. US Futures Dow down 166 and Nasdaq down 100

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