The market value of Western Australia’s biggest listed companies tumbled by 7.4 per cent in March to $160.7 billion.
The fall in the Deloitte WA Index, which tracks the value of the 100 largest WA listed companies, exceeded the 4.7 per cent decline in the ASX All Ordinaries index.
Highlighting the volatility in stock markets, the March decline followed a 13.9 per cent jump in the Deloitte index in February.
Deloitte’s Perth office managing partner Keith Jones said the decline reflected continued instability in the financial sector, coupled with a fall in commodity prices.
“Tin and oil prices increased, however all other commodity prices we monitor declined in March with the largest decrease being the palladium price declining 21.2 percent,” Mr Jones said.
“The prices of lead and zinc both declined by 14.6 per cent during the month of March.”
Despite the overall decline of the Deloitte WA Index, some companies excelled in the month.
The best performer was Iluka Resources Ltd which had an increase of 83.1 percent or $725 million in its market capitalisation.
“The increase was related to Iluka Resources launching a $353 million pro-rata entitlement offer to shareholders which was well supported,” Mr Jones said.
Other companies recording big gains were Cape Lambert Iron Ore Ltd and Red Hill Iron Ltd which increased 41 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. Cape Lambert announced that the sale of its Cape Lambert iron ore project for $400 million to MCC Mining was on target while Red Hill announced an increase in resources of its joint venture in the West Pilbara region from an initial 135 million tonnes to 350 million tonnes.
