Australian stock market retreats from 20-day high as ASX 200 slips; DroneShield jumps 10%, Deep Yellow falls

Australian shares ended lower on Monday, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 62.30 points, or 0.72 per cent, to close at 8,635.00 after briefly hitting its highest level in 20 days earlier in the session. While the index pulled back on the day, it has shown little movement over the past week and remains up 5.83 per cent over the past year, indicating overall resilience despite short-term volatility.

Top gainers and losers of ASX 200

DroneShield Limited led the market higher, rising 10.58 per cent to $2.30, followed by Austal Limited, which gained 5.14 per cent to $6.55. DigiCo Infrastructure REIT advanced 3.77 per cent to $2.48, while Monadelphous Group added 2.98 per cent to $26.99 and Catalyst Metals climbed 2.84 per cent to $6.52.

On the downside, Deep Yellow Limited and Boss Energy were the weakest performers in the index, falling 8.53 per cent and 8.19 per cent respectively. Ramelius Resources declined 6.78 per cent to $3.71, Liontown Limited dropped 6.42 per cent to $1.39, and ASX Limited slid 5.68 per cent to $53.66.

Sector-wise performance

Sector performance was broadly negative, with 10 of the 11 sectors ending the session in the red alongside the broader market. Materials led losses, falling 2.20 per cent, followed by Health Care down 1.21 per cent, Energy lower by 0.81 per cent and Industrials easing 0.66 per cent.

Consumer Discretionary was the sole outperformer, gaining 0.54 per cent and rebounding from recent declines, though the sector remains down 0.61 per cent over the past week. Other sectors posted modest losses, including Information Technology (-0.46 per cent), A-REITs (-0.28 per cent), Consumer Staples (-0.26 per cent), Telecommunications Services (-0.26 per cent), Utilities (-0.07 per cent) and Financials (-0.07 per cent).