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

The numbers: The Australian sharemarket slipped 0.6 per cent with tech and healthcare stocks weighing down the bourse. However, the energy sector posted a solid session as oil prices continued to push higher.

The S&P/ASX 200 finished the day at 6,649.6 points, with a weak lead from Wall Street bringing the local tech sector down 2.9 per cent and healthcare 2.8 per cent lower. Software company Xero had a 6 per cent drop, while WiseTech Global lost 4.9 per cent.

Nine out of 11 sectors finished in the red, but energy stocks rose by 2.5 per cent. Woodside finished 3.6 per cent higher, while Whitehaven Coal jumped by 5.3 per cent. BHP closed 1 per cent lower after its production report forecast a volatile year ahead.

The lifters: Pendal Group 7.8%, Mesoblast 7.6%, Whitehaven Coal 5.3%

The laggards: Xero -6%, Pointsbet Holdings -6%, EML Payments -5%

The lowdown: Despite futures predicting a fall at open, the local index started the session in positive territory, as a 5.2 per cent jump in the US crude oil price overnight spurred local energy stocks higher.

Brent Crude stabilised following the Monday rise and is now priced at around US$106 a barrel, but remains below its recent peak of US$121 in early June before global interest rate tightening increased recession fears.

By the afternoon, energy stocks were unable to completely counter the falling tech and healthcare sectors as both followed Wall Street’s negative lead to drag the ASX lower.