S&P/ASX 200 Falls On Wednesday

The Australian share market or S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO) (ASX: XJO) fell 1% on Wednesday, according to Google Finance.

Here are the key news events on the ASX today.

All Ordinaries: down 0.9% at 6,005 points

ASX 200: down 1% at 5,902 points

Gainers

• Yancoal Australia Ltd (ASX: YAL) – up 3.2%
• Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) – up 1.8%
• EBOS Group Ltd. (ASX: EBO) – up 2.3%

Losers

• Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corp Ltd (ASX: FPH) – down 3.3%
• Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF) – down 2.7%
• Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX: MND) – down 5%

Monadelphous shares were amongst the ASX 200’s worst-performing today. Shares in the construction company went ‘ex-dividend’ today. Monadelphous recently declared an interim fully franked dividend of 30 cents per share.

Platinum Asset Management Limited (ASX: PTM), the Sydney-based investment company, saw its share price sold down 4.5% today. In a statement to the ASX, Platinum said its funds under management had declined from $27.96 billion to $27.73 billion between January and February.

Shares of Newcrest Mining and other gold miners appear to have rallied today following the market selloff and resignation of US President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn.

In response to Trump’s decision to put tariffs on imported aluminium and steel, the European Union has threatened to impose tariffs. Some commentators suggest Trump risks entering a trade war and his tariffs may actually send the U.S. economy backwards.

Mr Cohn said in a statement, “It has been an honour to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform. ” Read more here.

Transurban Group (ASX: TCL), the owner of the M7, Citylink and Lane Cove tunnel (among other toll roads) announced its response to the Victorian parliament’s decision to halt work on the West Gate Tunnel Project.

Transurban CEO Scott Charlton said, “After nearly three years of planning, development and public consultation, we have an agreement with the State to build the West Gate Tunnel Project and are committed to providing Melbourne with this desperately needed infrastructure as soon as possible.”