Yahoo Finance ASX loses 24 per cent in first quarter of 2020
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 (^AXJO) finished 2.02 per cent lower on Tuesday, dropping to 5,076.80 points, despite a promising start to the day.
What the... Stock markets explained
The broader All Ordinaries index (^AORD) also finished lower, down 1.61 per cent to 5,110.60 points
The 360-point swing today takes the ASX200 to a 20 per cent fall over the course of March and a mammoth 24 per cent fall since the beginning of the decade.
What happened this morning?
Local share markets leapt higher on Tuesday morning after the federal government announced its huge third stimulus package, worth $130 billion.
The ASX200 was up 1.03 per cent at 10:17am AEDT on Tuesday, or 5,234.90 points.
The All Ordinaries was also up 1.15 per cent, or 5,253.80 points at 10:18am AEDT.
What happened yesterday?
The ASX200 rocketed 7 per cent higher on Monday in anticipation of the government’s $130 billion third stimulus package, announced in its entirety after the closing bell at 4pm AEST.
That package includes wage subsidies of $1,500 a fortnight designed to keep Australian workers and businesses connected as the nation weathers the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The payment is equivalent to around 70 per cent of the median wage and can be used as a wage replacement or subsidy.
Around 60,000 Australian businesses have already signed up to the scheme, with workers eligible to receive payments immediately.
And on Wall Street overnight, healthcare stocks led the US share markets higher, with the S&P healthcare sector gaining 4.67 per cent.
Along with healthcare, the technology sector also rose more than four per cent on the day, as Microsoft shares jumped more than seven per cent, the biggest boost to the broad S&P 500.
A record $US2.2 trillion ($A3.6trillion) in aid and policy easing from the Federal Reserve helped equities recover some of their losses last week, with the S&P 500 posting its biggest weekly percentage gain in more than a decade and the Dow Jones its best since 1938, even after each dropped more than three per cent to end the trading week on Friday.
Each of Wall Street's three major indexes remain down more than 20 per cent from the February highs but investors are now trying to assess the economic damage and identify which companies will be on solid footing when the economy begins to accelerate.
With AAP.
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