Selling on the S&P/ASX200 gathered momentum into the afternoon on uncertainty around the outbreak of new COVID cases in Melbourne.

“China is rocketing on no real news, we’re somewhat pleased the Australian market hasn’t followed suit. You don’t want that level of volatility, unless it’s something obvious. ”
Mixed day
The best-performing sector was information technology, which firmed 0.2 per cent, with financials and utilities falling into the red late into the trading day.
The big four banks all gave back early gains to end the trading day lower. Macquarie, meantime, posted a strong day, climbing 1.5 per cent to $123.82.
According to the latest ANZ Bank survey, job ads climbed 42 per cent in June from the previous month. The positive jobs news helped the Australian dollar tick higher to buy $US69.6¢.
The currency’s strength weighed on the healthcare sector, which was the day’s worst performer. It finished down 1.8 per cent, with US dollar earning blue-chips CSL, falling 2.2 per cent, and Cochlear dropping 1.6 per cent.
Telstra made it four straight sessions of gains since July 1 after announcing price rises to its post-paid mobile subscription plans. The stock firmed 0.9 per cent to $3.39 and its shares are now up 7.6 per cent since closing at $3.13 on June 30. WiseTech led the gainers in the tech sector to gain 4.5 per cent to $21.46.
Company news
In company-specific news, Qantas said it has teamed up with Afterpay to let members of the Qantas frequent flyer program earn Qantas points when using the buy now, pay later platform. Qantas Loyalty members can earn up to 5000 points by linking their membership number to an Afterpay account.
Afterpay shares rose 0.7 per cent on the news, with investors shrugging off broker UBS reiterating its “sell” rating on the group with a warning over the capital-intensive nature of its business model.
Qantas dropped 0.8 per cent lower to $3.79, with other locally focused travel players Flight Centre and Webjet gaining ground despite the growing COVID-19 case numbers in Victoria.
Respiratory healthcare player Fisher & Paykel printed a new high of $33.32. The stock is up 57 per cent in calendar 2020 and last week the company reported a record full year net profit up 37 per cent to $NZ287.3 million ($271 million) on sales up 18 per cent to NZ$1.26 billion.
Other companies to hit records included data centre operator NextDC and machine-learning data annotation business Appen.
On the other side of the ledger, Adbri, the building materials business formerly known as Adelaide Brighton, lost another 6.8 per cent after broker downgrades. In the prior trading session it plummeted 25.4 per cent because of a key contract loss.
Among the small caps, weapons systems manufacturer Electro Optic Systems jumped 23.3 per cent to $6.56 after it told investors late on Friday that it’s in contract negotiations with the Australian government to sell 251 remote weapon stations and related material. The potential deal is part of the $270 billion capability upgrade for the Australian Defence Force.
At the closing bell, S&P/500 futures pointed to overnight gains of about 1.1 per cent, with futures in the tech-heavy Nasdaq index up 1.2 per cent.
The local sharemarket is likely to tread water until the August full-year profit reporting season, Mr Sequeira said.
“The focus on the Australian market should really be next month,” Mr Sequeira said.
“In the meantime you’ll have volatility that comes from offshore, both up and down, but the outlooks for companies’ earnings provided next month is the thing we’ll all be watching.”