The Australian share market has nosedived at the open, hot on the heels of a major overnight sell-off on Wall Street.
The Australian share market has nosedived at the open, hot on the heels of a major overnight sell-off on Wall Street.
Banking and infotech stocks - which also weighed heaviest on US indexes - lost more than two per cent in early trade, while mining, energy and healthcare sectors all lost more than one per cent.
Widespread losses pushed the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index down 83.5 points, or 1.41 per cent, to 5,857.8 at 1030 AEDT on Tuesday, while the All Ordinaries was down 82.4 points, or 1.37 per cent, at 5,944.8.
The Australian dollar also slipped again, and was buying 71.77 US cents, from 72.17 US cents on Monday.
Banks were a deadweight at the open with Westpac plummeting more than five per cent to $26.335 after going ex-dividend.
Commonwealth Bank, NAB, and ANZ lost between 1.35 per cent and 1.75 per cent, while Macquarie Group was down 1.77 per cent to $119.87.
The big miners also suffered after an overnight drop in base metals and iron ore, with Rio Tinto down 1.86 per cent to $81.04 and BHP down 1.2 per cent to $33.01.
South32, Bluescope Steel, Fortescue Metals also bled red, losing between 1.44 and 1.87 per cent.
There was no refuge for the gold miners either, with Newcrest, Northern Star and Evolution down on weaker gold prices.
Elsewhere, shares in explosives company Incitec Pivot dropped more than six per cent to $3.965 after reporting a 34.8 per cent drop in full-year profit to $207.9 million.
Healthcare shares were down 1.73 per cent, telcos dropped 1.26 per cent, while energy stocks tumbled 1.46 per cent on weaker US crude prices - which turned negative following a tweet from US President Donald Trump on supply.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq had fallen hard after Apple shares dropped 4.7 per cent overnight, with the local infotech sector following suit on falling Wisetech Global, Altium, Xero Ltd, and Afterpay shares.
Elders Limited shares were down more than 10 per cent at one stage, having climbed 20 per cent the previous session on strong earnings data.
Meanwhile, Ruralco was the latest farm sector player to credit drought-necessitated diversification for a lift in profit, despite cattle and real estate prices flattening amid an ongoing dry spell.
Ruralco shares were one of the rare gains in early trade, up 4.81 per cent to $3.05.
AGL Energy was also ahead, gaining nearly 1.5 per cent to $18.47.
