Bloodbath on the ASX; 2 year low

The ASX 200 dropped 175 points to 4067 at midday – a drop of over 4% comparable to the 500 point drop on the Dow Jones index overnight. The drop puts the index at a 2 year low, and over 20% down on April 2011’s high of 5069.

This was supposed to be a week buoyed by the US decision to raise its debt ceiling, but the tensions in the US had only crowded out the real story; the deteriorating credit situation across the globe.

IT companies were not spared in the bloodbath with the InfoTech index dropping 3.5%. Some of the worst affected companies included solar panel manufacturer Silex Systems (ASX:SLX) which dropped almost 11% to $2.76.

Codan (ASX:CDA) dropped 10% to $1.06 despite recently announcing it had won a contract to supply AFRICOM.

UXC Consulting (ASX:UXC) dropped almost 9% to 62c despite news that it had revealed that it hoped to close the sale of its Field Solutions Group this month, with buyer finance approvals confirmed.

Oakton (ASX:OKN) dropped 7% to $1.84 despite recently announcing it had resolved Oakton’s long running dispute with Tenix.

Hansen Technologies (ASX:HSN) slumped nearly 7% to 88c despite Hansen winning a major contract with a subsidiary of Telefonica in Spain to provide billing and customer care support.

Internet giant, Melbourne IT (ASX:MLB) was the best of a bad lot dropping 5c to $1.70 with the market shrugging off the recent resignation of CFO, Carolyn Sutton.