ASX ends lower as gold miners and banks lead losses

The news: The Australian sharemarket closed lower as each of the big four banks retreated and sliding bullion prices sent gold miners tumbling.

The benchmark ASX 200 index fell 0.82% to 8,428.4. Seven of the 11 sectoral indices were in negative territory.

Biggest movers:

• Ora Banda Mining (-7.8%) — Worst hit by a selloff in gold miners, with Greatland Resources (-7.3%), Bellevue Gold (-6.1%) and Vault Minerals (-6.1%) also slumping.
• Sigma Healthcare (+4.5%) — Led a rally in health stocks. The sector added 1.2%, with CSL (+2.9%) and Telix Pharmaceuticals (+2.7%) also rising strongly.

Other news:

• Telstra (-0.2%) — Appointed former executive and current ANZ and Fonterra director Holly Kramer to its board. Elana Rubin will retire after six years on the board.
• Premier Investments (-4.3%) — Reported a 0.4% rise in interim profit from continuing operations to $101.7 million
• Humm Group (+2.8%) — Founder and former chair Andrew Abercrombie has applied for a review of the Takeovers Panel’s declaration of unacceptable circumstances in relation to Humm’s handling of Credit Corp’s takeover bid.
• Electro Optic Systems (+2.6%) — Chief executive Andreas Schwer sold 1.5 million shares in the company, more than halving his total holding to 1.4 million shares, valued at around $13.6 million.
• Flight Centre (-0.6%) — Acquired British meetings and events agency Fresh Approach for an undisclosed fee.