thompsonx
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kalikshama
Australian stockmarket tumbles as miners, oil companies face sell-off
The stockmarket put in its worst one-day performance in nearly five months today, as US jobs data and European elections rattled confidence.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index tumbled 2.2 per cent to 4301.30, a level not seen since April 17, as miners and oil companies took the brunt of the selling.
It was the worst one-day performance for the market since December 19, 2011, when shares dropped 2.4 per cent in a day.
The Australian dollar fell to $US1.0149, from $US1.0187 in late North American trading on Friday.
Asian markets also took a beating as Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average ended the day down 2.8 per cent, while US stock futures pointed to another day of sharp losses on Wall Street.
Stocks fell heavily in the US on Friday after just 115,000 jobs were added to the US economy last month, far below the 163,000 job additions that had been penciled in by economists.
Doubts about the strength of the US economy were compounded by weekend election results in Europe, said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital.
"The (poll) results weren’t surprising but they just add to the uncertainty,” he said.
In France, Nicolas Sarkozy was ousted as president by socialist Francois Hollande, who has indicated that he wants to renegotiate Europe’s fiscal compact, which aims to impose tough budget rules for the continent.
In Greece, exit polls indicated that mainstream New Democracy party and the Pasok party - both supporters of the country’s second bailout - took a drubbing. Should those parties fail to reach the 151 parliamentary seats needed to form a coalition, then Greece could reject the hard-fought aid package.
"A government in support of the new adjustment program cannot be taken for granted. We believe Greece's survival in the Eurozone could be at risk, with negative implications for the still-fragile periphery,"said Athanasios Vamvakidis, strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
While concerns about Greece are more immediate, given that the country is close to the brink, France is probably a bigger concern in the longer term, said Mr Oliver.
“Investors are worried because the last time the French elected a socialist government, the sharemarket fell 30 per cent,” said Mr Oliver, referring to 1981, when Francois Mitterrand came to power.
Meanwhile, US jobs data stoked fresh fears that the country was heading for a double-dip recession, Mr Oliver said. “It’s like deja vu,” he said, referring to 2011, when stocks started the year with enthusiasm but gains then fell away as investors parsed economic data.
Australia's oil and mining sectors each slumped more than 3 per cent as oil traded around multi-month lows in Asian electronic trading hours and other commodity futures also came under pressure amid a stronger US dollar.
Within the mining sector, BHP Billiton dropped 4.1 per cent and Rio Tinto was down 4.5 per cent. Energy-sector companies trading lower included Santos, down 4.4 per cent, and Woodside, down 2.5 per cent.
Since the stock market is nothing but a gambling casino why would any sane person give a fuck about who made or lost money there or what the cause was?
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RE: France - 
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