Aussie financials hit near 2-month low on COVID-19 jitters

Virgin Money UK

19/07/2021 03:37

** Australian financial stock subindex  .AXFJ  slides as
much as 1.9% to 6,274.1 points, lowest since May 20
    ** Rising cases of the highly infectious Delta variant of
COVID-19, lockdowns in the country's two biggest cities, and
slow vaccine rollout raise concerns of a hit to economic growth
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2OT00W
    ** Cases ease slightly on Monday, but authorities say hard
lockdown yet to translate into a sustained dip in infections
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2OU0JD
    ** Shares of the 'Big Four' banks Commonwealth Bank of
Australia  CBA.AX , Westpac Banking Corp  WBC.AX , Australia and
New Zealand Banking Group  ANZ.AX  and National Australia Bank
 NAB.AX  slide between 1.2% and 1.7%
    ** Top losers on the subindex include IOOF Holdings  IFL.AX 
and Virgin Money UK  VUK.AX , both down 2.3%
    ** Up to Friday's close, the subindex was up 16% this year

 (Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi)
 ((Shashwat.Awasthi@tr.com
mailto:Shashwat.Awasthi@thomsonreuters.com))