By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 finished Monday’s session 6.2 points or 0.08% lower at 7447.1 amid a continued sell-off in technology and healthcare companies as rising long term bond yields pushed market participants away from risk-sensitive assets.
The Technology sector was the biggest laggard, falling 2.33% as Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) lost 1.79%, Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) dipped 2.75%, Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) lost 2.72% and Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) lost 1.73%, Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU) lost 1.54%. Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN) added 6.19% after surging over 10% on Friday, while Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) rallied 10.8% after announcing it had begun the process for a secondary listing on the Nasdaq.
Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT) dipped 2.31% while Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) added 0.79%.
Health Care stocks dipped broadly, with CSL Ltd (ASX:CSL) down 0.85%, Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX:SHL) losing 1.05%, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH) down 1.02%, Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX:RHC) falling 1.45%, Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD) down 2.63% and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) shedding 3.19%.
Financials finished mixed as Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) fell 1.76%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) dipped 0.11%, Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) added 0.65%, National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) lost 0.1% and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) added 0.37%.
The Materials sector also closed higher, with Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) up 2.28%, BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) adding 2.4% and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) up 1.33%. Meantime, Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) gained 2% Lake Resources NL (ASX:LKE) added 1.02%, Magnis Resources Ltd (ASX:MNS) lifted 1.9% and, Avz Minerals Ltd (ASX:AVZ) gained 3.47% Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) added 0.54%.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year rates touched fresh 7-week highs of 1.907%, while United States 10-Year yields neared fresh 2-year highs of 1.764%.
Among cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum were trading at 15-week lows of 42074.36 and 3173.87 respectively.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 lost 0.6% to 12,893.