ASX 200 falls 0.88% to 8,672.5, its lowest close since 12 June, as miners and banks drop with Australian 10-year yields at a 2011 high

ASX 200 close: 8,672.5 (-0.88%) Breadth: 83 advancers / 133 decliners (17 unchanged across the 233 largest ASX names) Sentiment: bearish

The S&P/ASX 200 closed at 8,672.5 on 15 September 2026, down 77.4 points or 0.88% to its lowest close since 12 June, as Materials fell 2.21% and Financials 1.08% while Brent rose 1.67% to US$107.44 and Australia's 10-year yield reached 5.40%, the highest since May 2011. TLX.AU rose 8.63% to $17.75 in its second session after the FDA approved its Pixclara brain cancer imaging agent, while CXO.AU fell 8.97%, the largest move among the 233 largest names, handing back part of Monday's 13.04% gain. The US 10-year Treasury yield printed 5.01% at 16:20 AEST, its highest since 2007, with a 25 basis point Fed hike about 90% priced for Thursday at 04:00 AEST.

What moved the index

• Materials: -2.21%, worth about 46 bps of the 88 bps fall. BHP.AU -2.21% to $59.25, RIO.AU -2.20% to $164.50, FMG.AU -1.88% and MIN.AU -4.30% fell as iron ore lost 0.8% to US$95.75/t after China's August retail sales rose 0.4% year on year against a 0.8% forecast and property investment fell 19.9% in the first eight months. The All Ordinaries Gold index fell 3.08%, with EVN.AU -3.10% and NST.AU -2.61% as December gold lost 0.50% to US$4,330.20/oz.
• Financials: -1.08%, worth about 33 bps. CBA.AU -1.59% to $152.50, MQG.AU -2.45% to $239.03, NAB.AU -1.29%, ANZ.AU -1.12% and ASX.AU -2.35% fell as the Australian 10-year yield rose 4 bps to 5.40% and the 3-year reached 5.0%, both the highest since May 2011, per Market Index at 14:19 AEST.
• Energy: -1.62%, about 6 bps. WDS.AU fell 2.21% to $32.35 and STO.AU 2.06% to $8.55 as Brent rose 1.67% to US$107.44.
• Health Care: +1.50%, worth about 14 bps of lift. TLX.AU +8.63%, RMD.AU +2.85%, CSL.AU +1.57% to $174.26 and SHL.AU +1.57% rose.

Together, Materials, Financials and Energy took about 85 bps and Health Care returned about 14 bps, a net of about 71 bps against the 88 bps fall. A-REITs (-0.59%) and Industrials (-0.43%) took about 7 bps more and Staples (+0.88%) and Discretionary (+0.87%) returned about 9 bps. The last 19 bps or so fall within the error of these approximate sector weights.

Session highlights

• 8,710.5 was the session high in the first 10 minutes, and the index set its low of 8,658.6, down 1.05%, in the final hour before closing at 8,672.5. Market Index put the index 6.5% below its 6 August record high at 12:35 AEST.
• China's August data showed industrial output up 5.2% against 4.5% in July, retail sales up 0.4% and the urban jobless rate at 5.3%; new home prices fell 0.1% for the month and 3.0% for the year.
• 360.AU +5.02%, MP1.AU +2.69%, ZIP.AU +2.38% and WTC.AU +1.88% rose after the US software fund IGV.US gained 5.04% overnight; NXT.AU -4.01% and IFT.AU -3.10% followed the 5.86% overnight fall in the PHLX Semiconductor index.
• 664 decliners against 403 advancers across the whole exchange, with 393 unchanged; the S&P/ASX 200 VIX rose 2.00% to 14.33.

Sector scorecard

• Best: Health Care (+1.50%)
• Worst: Materials (-2.21%)
• Dispersion (best minus worst): 3.71 pts
• 5 of 11 sectors rose: Staples +0.88%, Discretionary +0.87%, Communications +0.32% and IT +0.29% joined Health Care; Energy -1.62%, Financials -1.08%, A-REITs -0.59%, Industrials -0.43% and Utilities -0.12% fell with Materials. The S&P/ASX 200 Resources index fell 2.24% and the Small Ordinaries 0.33%.
• Materials had the widest internal spread, 15.76 percentage points from MLX.AU +6.79% at the top to CXO.AU -8.97% at the bottom.

Top movers

The table covers the 233 largest ASX names by market value (about A$500 million and above) plus 360.AU, with every percentage taken from the Yahoo Finance official close.

Notable announcements

• NHC.AU +3.03%: FY26 net profit of $161 million, down 63.4%, as saleable coal output rose 8% to 11.5 Mt; the board declared a 30 cent fully franked final dividend.
• ZIP.AU +2.38%: an on-market buy-back of up to $50 million, or 79,680,755 shares (6.4% of issued capital), which began on 14 September.
• STO.AU -2.06%: non-binding LNG agreements to supply POSCO Steel for 10 years from 2030 or 2031 and to buy about 1 Mtpa from the proposed Ksi Lisims project in Canada for up to 20 years.
• NIC.AU -1.26%: its Excelsior Nickel Cobalt plant will run at 30% of nameplate capacity after under 4 mm of rain fell at Hengjaya last month against a 222 mm average.
• RMS.AU -4.00%: traded ex-dividend.
• Hancock Prospecting agreed an $8.8 million placement at $0.017 a share for 13.5% of White Cliff Minerals, subject to shareholder approval.

After the AU close (17:30 AEST)

Next 24h catalysts (AEST)

• Wed 10:00: ASX open; SPI futures trade from 09:50 with S&P 500 futures -0.35% at the AU close.
• Wed 22:30: US August retail sales and US import and export prices.
• Thu 04:00: FOMC decision and projections, 04:30 press conference; about 90% priced for a 25 bp hike.
• Thu 21:00: Bank of England decision; New Zealand second-quarter GDP is also due Thursday.
• Fri 09:30: RBA appears before the House Economics Committee; Bank of Japan decision about 13:00; the S&P/ASX quarterly rebalance takes effect after the close.

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