ASX 200 falls 0.58% to 8,856.5 as miners and banks slide before the RBA; SBM.AU drops 13.94%

ASX 200 close: 8,856.5 (-0.58%) Breadth: 126 advancers / 151 decliners (ASX 300, Market Index) Sentiment: bearish

The S&P/ASX 200 closed at 8,856.5 on 2 November 2026, down 51.6 points or 0.58%, as materials fell 1.35% and financials 0.63% after Friday's 1.82% S&P 500 fall and 3.29% drop in gold. SBM.AU lost 13.94% to $0.71 after Canada's federal regulator called for its own impact assessment of the 15-Mile Processing Hub (Market Index). Money markets priced about an 80% to 85% chance that the RBA lifts the cash rate to 4.85% on Tuesday (Market Index).

What moved the index

Materials and financials took about 49 bps from the ASX 200 on 2 November 2026, against about 11 bps added by industrials and consumer discretionary.

• Materials: -1.35%, worth about -28 bps of the -58 bps index move. BHP.AU fell 1.42% to $56.74 and RIO.AU 1.17% to $145.59 after iron ore lost 0.7% to US$90.80/t on Friday and copper 1.5% to US$14,130/t (ABC). The All Ords Gold index fell 2.80%, led by NST.AU -4.75% to $24.07 and CYL.AU -7.40% to $3.63, even as December gold recovered 0.44% from a one-year low.
• Financials: -0.63%, worth about -21 bps. CBA.AU fell 1.00% to $165.05 and NAB.AU 1.45% to $40.91 after all four majors traded higher at 11:20am on the Westpac result (ABC). WBC.AU held a 1.00% gain at $37.19, and AMP.AU lost 7.48%.
• Health care and staples: -0.76% and -1.39%, together about -12 bps. RMD.AU fell 5.77% to $33.46 in the second session after its first-quarter result. WOW.AU lost 1.89% and COL.AU 1.75%, extending Friday's fall on flat Coles guidance.
• Industrials and discretionary: +0.76% and +0.65%, together about +11 bps. REH.AU rose 5.97% and NWH.AU 2.70%; FLT.AU gained 3.08%.

Together, these four drivers account for about 50 bps of the 58 bps move; the residual reflects A-REITs -0.41% and a breadth count of 126 advancers to 151 decliners across the ASX 300.

Session highlights

• 8,908.6 was the session high, level with Friday's close of 8,908.1, and 8,841.7 was the low; the index closed 14.8 points above that low.
• 11.46 was the AU VIX close, up 5.86% a day before the RBA decision.
• -1.2% was the October move in Cotality's national home value index, a seventh straight fall that leaves values 6.7% below the March peak (Market Index). Brisbane lost 2.0%, Perth 1.7% and Sydney 1.6%.
• 1.0% is the GDP growth that CBA now forecasts by mid-2027, down from 1.8%, with unemployment at 5.1%. NAB also forecasts 1.0% growth in 2027 and sees unemployment at 5.4% by the end of that year (ABC).
• +0.5% was the Melbourne Institute Inflation Gauge reading for October, after +0.3% in September (ABC). ABS dwelling approvals rose 5.1% in September, as apartment approvals rose 16.6% and house approvals fell 5.3%.
• S&P 500 futures +0.41% and Nasdaq 100 futures +0.79% at 6:28pm AEDT, after the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.86% on Friday when Intel lost 28.58%.

Sector scorecard

• Best: Industrials (+0.76%)
• Worst: Consumer Staples (-1.39%), with All Ords Gold -2.80%
• Dispersion (best minus worst): 2.15 pts
• Materials had the widest internal spread among the names checked, 19.62 pts, from NUF.AU +5.68% to SBM.AU -13.94%.
• Consumer Discretionary +0.65%, Communication Services +0.20%, Energy -0.11%, Information Technology -0.20%, Utilities -0.21%, A-REITs -0.41%, Financials -0.63%, Health Care -0.76%, Resources -1.24%, Materials -1.35%.
• BMN.AU rose 5.34% to $3.55 in a flat energy sector, after spot uranium posted its strongest week in nine months (Market Index).

Top movers

Notable announcements

• WBC.AU: FY26 cash profit of $7.0bn beat a $6.89bn forecast (Market Index); net interest margin fell 7 bps to 1.87%, impairment charges more than doubled to $864m, and the final dividend is 77 cents.
• SBM.AU: approved the Touquoy restart, reported a maiden 0.5 Moz underground resource at Old Austen and announced an on-market buy-back of up to 100 million shares.
• RMD.AU: first-quarter revenue rose 5.9% and net income 20%, the latter including a US$61.8m divestment gain (Market Index). Its 10-Q reached ASX today.
• KMD.AU: rose 10.37% to $1.65 after granting Bluestar Alliance exclusivity for due diligence on a possible acquisition (Market Index).
• AMP.AU: said it knew of no unannounced information behind the trading, and that the China Life report does not change its guidance (Market Index).

After the AU close (18:28 AEDT)

Next 24h catalysts (AEDT)

• Tue 02:00: US ISM manufacturing PMI, October; Market Index lists a 54.5 forecast
• Tue 3 Nov 14:30: RBA cash rate decision and Statement on Monetary Policy
• Tue 3 Nov 15:30: Governor Michele Bullock's press conference
• Tue 3 Nov: US congressional elections; Japanese markets closed for a public holiday (Market Index)
• Thu 5 Nov: NAB.AU full-year results

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