The laggards

The industrials sector was the biggest drag on the ASX, after its shares fell 0.61 per cent. Mega caps Brambles (down 2.48 per cent), Infratil (down 2.84 per cent), Computershare (down 1.66 per cent) and Qube Holdings (down 1.95 per cent) were among the worst-performing stocks on the index.

QBE Insurance (down 4.25 per cent) was the weakest mega-cap stock. The insurer announced a $US100 million ($150 million) restructuring charge upon closing down part of its North American insurance operation.

Helia Group, a provider of lenders mortgage insurance, tumbled 20.85 per cent after the Commonwealth Bank of Australia flagged potential changes to its contract with the company. The existing contract accounted for more than half of Helia’s gross written premium last year.

The lowdown

Capital senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the Australian sharemarket drifted lower on Wednesday after investors wound back bets on the Reserve Bank’s rate cuts. The index added 1 per cent on Tuesday after the RBA left interest rates on hold at 4.35 per cent.

“The ASX200 ground lower throughout the session, partly due to the slightly hawkish surprise from the RBA yesterday and, subsequently, lower probabilities of rate cuts this year,” Rodda noted.

On Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent to set an all-time high for the 31st time this year. The Nasdaq edged up by less than 0.1 per cent to set its own record, while the Dow Jones added 0.1 per cent.

Underneath Wall Street’s calm market surface, Nvidia was the star. It rose again, this time up 3.5 per cent, making it again the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 upward. And it lifted its total market value further above $US3.3 trillion ($5 trillion).

The artificial intelligence tech giant grabbed the top spot on Wall Street from Microsoft, which has been trading the crown back and forth with Apple after they wrested it from past titans such as big oil behemoth Exxon Mobil and big tobacco firm Philip Morris.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“Experts have already questioned whether nuclear energy can deliver cheaper power. The Coalition has mounted an argument against renewables by saying that the cost of new transmission lines, which link wind and solar farms into the grid, is not included when the cost of renewable power is compared with other forms of generation,” this masthead’s climate and energy correspondent, Mike Foley, writes after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton revealed the locations for seven nuclear power plants as part of the Coalition’s election pledge.

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