Market Wrap / freefall Friday

The local market finished lower again this Friday, capping off a disappointing week for domestic traders. 

The S&P/ASX 200 closed lower by 101.20 points or 1.2% to 8067, with eight out of 11 sectors in the red. Adding to yesterday’s monumental downfall in losses, the ASX is currently on track for its worst month since 2022. Over the week, the index fell 2.8%.

The consumer and financial sectors faced significant drops, both falling over 2%. Most notably, CBA tumbled to a one-month low. This was conceded by fellow big four banks, NAB and Westpac, down 2.2% and 1.2% respectively. 

Multi-industry supplier, Wesfarmers shares fell 5% after it announced plans to sell its industrial gas supply arm Coregas to a Japanese multinational for $770 million. 

Elsewhere, Telstra signed a five year agreement with Ventia, aiming to optimise the design and maintenance of Telstra's critical digital infrastructure. The partnership is expected to generate over $400 million in annual revenue for Ventia over the next five years. 

In other news, Integral Diagnostics completed its acquisition of Capitol Health to create an almost $1 billion diagnostics imaging group, with the freshly issued shares commencing trading next week.

Data in Japan showed core inflation lifting in the month of November rising 2.7% higher from the year prior, causing the country’s central bank to remain under pressure to keep increasing interest rates. 

Overnight, the US will release the personal income & spending for the month of November, as well as the personal consumption expenditure index. 

Looking ahead, next week will be understandably in the market, on Tuesday the monetary policy minutes will be released, before a two day market closure from Wednesday.