The Australian share market has opened sharply lower, with every sector losing at least 1.0 per cent, after a second day of significant falls on Wall Street.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 143.1 points, or 2.16 per cent, to 6,496.8 points at 1030 AEST on Thursday, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 139.6 points, or 2.07 per cent, to 6,613.7 points.
Energy shares collectively fell 3.09 per cent, leading losses, and the tech sector shed 2.84 per cent in the first half hour of trading.
The ASX’s early losses totalled more than $46 billion as the financial, industrials, healthcare and telecommunications sectors also all fell more than 2.0 per cent.
The big four banks were all lower, with ANZ down 2.67 per cent to $27.30, Commonwealth down 2.31 per cent to $77.76, NAB down 3.07 per cent to $28.13 and Westpac down 2.43 per cent to $28.50.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank was down 2.34 per cent, Bank of Queensland was down 1.74 per cent and Macquarie Group was down 2.83 per cent.
Mining giant BHP was down 2.27 per cent to $35.475, Rio Tinto was down 3.16 per cent to $88.21 and Fortescue Metals was down 2.98 per cent to $8.46.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.86 per cent, the S&P 500 was down 1.79 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 1.56 per cent.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 2.50 per cent, recording its steepest slide since December, and the FTSE 100 in London plummeted 3.23 per cent amid investor concerns about weakening global growth.
The Aussie dollar is buying 67.13 US cents from 67.02 US cents on Wednesday.
AAP