Local stocks wallowed in negative territory to start the week, ignoring another bout of optimism relating to easing covid restrictions in China. Tech, communications, industrials and materials led the losses, falling 0.9% or more. The lack of reaction in the miners to gains in Chinese stocks and commodity futures suggests reopening optimism has now been entirely discounted by investors. Now it’s up to the data to meet those lofty expectations. Helping to offset those losses, energy jumped 2.1%, getting a lift from news Saudi Arabia will increase its prices for crude exports in July. Utilities and healthcare chimed in with gains of 0.7% and 0.2% respectively. The S&P/ASX 200 eased 0.45%, falling 32.5 points to close at 7206.3.

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