Mr Sequiera said the mid-morning release of April unemployment data helped smother the embers of a potential markets recovery but were not a catastrophic blow to equities.
“The jobs report really just confirmed what people thought was going to happen anyway,” Mr Sequiera said.
“It might have been slightly lower, or slightly above what people were expecting but in the end these figures are just huge no matter how you look at them.”
He said the gradual easing of physical lockdowns will play a part in the markets’ bounce-back but it would be the speed at which companies emerge from economic lockdown that would prove crucial.
“If this happens quicker than expected, there is a potential upside in the market,” Mr Sequiera
“But that depends upon activity, and it depends on the economic environment picking up before government support runs out, and corporate infrastructure gets destroyed.”
Just 26 companies finished the day green, led by grain storage giant Graincorp up 11.6 per cent and appliance manufacturer Breville, up 6.7 per cent following a completed equity raise and a buoyant set of trading figures.
All sectors ended down bar gold, which finished the day up 1.6 per cent. Energy and information technology stocks were the biggest laggards, both ending the day down around 3 per cent.
Wearing on the index were salary packager McMillan Shakespeare, finishing down 7.5 per cent, and gaming operator Jumbo, falling 7.3 per cent.
