The Wrap: why Westpac’s up, but the sharemarket’s down

Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day, and how the experts saw it.

The numbers you need:

The ASX 200 finished Monday’s session down 1.2 per cent to 7.120.6, which means the market is down 6.2 per cent year to date.

The lifters: Westpac Bank +3.2% to $24.60, CSL +0.8% to $270.41, and Woolworths +0.55% to $38.36.

The laggards: BHP -1.3% to $46.21, ANZ -2.7% to $26.03, and Goodman Group -7% to $19.16.

Today’s market drivers: Our local index is still being driven by the global economic uncertainty – everything from the prospect of rising rates to worries about China’s lockdowns is making investors jittery and sending them towards defensive stocks.

“There is more of a move to value and the defensive names…like Amcor. Most other sectors have been sold off pretty heavily,” senior investment advisor at Shaw and Partners, Craig Sidney, said.

The ASX 200’s tech index followed its US peers down sharply at the open and finished the day down 3.2%. Meanwhile, mining heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto slumped after weakness in the iron ore price over the weekend.

The major bright spot for the day has been Westpac, which finished the day up 3.2%, after reporting stronger than expected half-year results.