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Stocks at six-week low on Trump concerns

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Concerns about the impacts of a win by Republican candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming US election have unnerved investors and pushed Australian shares to a six-week low.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index has dropped 1.16 per cent, with big losses across the health care, energy and financial sectors on Wednesday in the wake of a 0.5 per cent fall on Tuesday.

Bell Direct equities analyst Julia Lee said investors had taken note that the most recent poll results show Mr Trump and his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton are neck and neck for the top job at the White House.

Investors had been factoring in an expectation that Mrs Clinton will secure victory on November 8.

“We’re less than a week out now from the US election so that seems to be front of mind for investors, and we know that investors don’t like uncertainty, which is rising ahead of the election instead of abating,” Ms Lee said.

Health care companies, including CSL and Mayne Pharma, lost ground because of concerns about further pricing regulation across the sector in the US should Ms Clinton win the election, Ms Lee said.

The local health care sector has also seen a string of downgrades following Healthscope’s recent profit warning, she said.

Biotechnology giant CSL dropped $2.16 cents to $97.49, Ramsay Health Care lost 81 cents to $71.52 and Mayne fell five cents to $1.58.

Energy companies fell following a 1.1 per cent fall in oil prices overnight on rising concerns about whether the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would deliver on its pledge last month to cut production.

Woodside Petroleum dropped 30 cents to $27.71, Oil Search shed nine cents to $6.57 and Origin Energy fell 13 cents to $5.25.

Within the financial sector, Australia’s biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank, dropped 59 cents to $72.17.

Westpac fell 44 cents to $30.03, National Australia Bank lost 39 cents to $27.50 and ANZ fell 37 cents to $27.18.

Resource heavyweights, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton both fell, losing 30 cents to $53.90 and 24 cents to $22.56, respectively.

KEY FACTS:

* The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 61.5 points, or 1.16 per cent, at 5,229 points.

* The broader All Ordinaries index fell 64.2 points, or 1.19 per cent, to 5,311 points.

* The December share price index futures contract dropped 78 points to 5,184 points, with 41,292 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 2.74 billion securities traded, worth $5.86 billion.