- The ASX200 closed 1.73% lower on Friday at 7279.30 points.
- Prophecy International Holdings soared 28% on significant growth.
- Flight Centre fell 6.5% on the new COVID-19 variant out of South Africa.
The Australian market continued a freefall in afternoon trade to close Friday?s session 1.73% lower at 7279.30 as every sector except gold miners ended the day in negative territory, led by energy stocks plummeting 4.5%. For the week, the ASX lost 1.58%.
The tech sector lost ground in afternoon trade, ending the day more than 2.3% lower as Appen?s nosedive worsened to 18.3% while Nearmap, Technology One and Megaport each shed more than 3%.
Bitcoin is trading 1.01% higher over the last 24-hours at US$57,711.16 at 4:30pm AEDT.
Computer software applications company Prophecy International Holdings soared 28% today after reporting significant growth across its Snare and eMite product lines. Prophecy reported continued growth of eMite Annualised Recurring Revenue (ARR) to $10.5m while Snare?s ARR hit $4.1m. The company also signed new eMite customer contracts across multiple geographies with aggregate 1st year contract value of more than $3.4m.
Making headlines, Flight Centre shares were sold off today as investors digested the news of a new COVID-19 variant found in South Africa that is already spreading through Europe, Africa and southeast Asia. Just as international travel bans are lifted, the UK halted 6 flights from African nations today following the identification of B.1.1.529, the new COVID-19 variant with 22 cases already found in South Africa and 2 cases in Hong Kong.
And the NSW government is stepping up its digital identification game, by moving to develop a world-leading digital birth certificate, taking the concept to market in search of a developer to create the digital solution.