The S&P/ASX 200 index ended last month down 6.17 per cent, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices, after suffering declines across every sector.
The September slump saw the benchmark index give up most of the gains recorded in July and August, ending the quarter only 0.4 per cent higher.
“While all S&P/ASX 200 sectors dropped in September, six out of 11 ended the quarter in the black, with energy the best performer, up 5.9 per cent in Q3,” commented S&P Dow Jones Indices index investment strategy director, Benedek Vörös.
“Utilities pulled at the rear for both the month and the quarter, down 13.8 per cent and 12.5 per cent for September and Q3, respectively.”
For the month, materials was the best performing sector with the smallest loss of 2.34 per cent, followed by energy (-3.81 per cent), health care (-4.44 per cent), consumer staples (-5.43 per cent), communication services (6.12 per cent) and financials (-6.49 per cent).
After utilities, real estate (-13.77 per cent), information technology (-10.61 per cent) were the worst performers, along with industrials (-9.80 per cent) and consumer discretionary (-6.12 per cent).
Over the past 12 months, energy (26.11 per cent), utilities (13.13 per cent) and materials (10.47 per cent) are the only sectors to have made gains, while information technology (-39.28 per cent), consumer discretionary (-23.45 per cent) and real estate (-21.36) have recorded the largest losses.
S&P Dow Jones Indices noted that equities dropped across the capitalisation range during September, with the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries index ranking as the worst performer for the month (-11.20 per cent) as well as over the past year (-22.56 per cent).
This was followed by the S&P/ASX Emerging Companies index, which fell 9.83 per cent last month to be down 18.21 per cent for the year.
Monthly declines were also seen for the S&P/ASX MidCap 50 (-7.50 per cent), S&P/ASX 300 (-6.29 per cent), S&P/ASX 100 (-5.68 per cent), S&P/ASX 50 (-5.37 per cent) and S&P/ASX 20 (-4.88 per cent).
The S&P/ASX Mid Cap 50 index topped the performance table for Q3 with a gain of 5.20 per cent while the S&P/ASX 20 index has been the best performer annually (-4.55 per cent).
