The ASX 200 saw its lowest trade since 2016, falling 9.7%. To put this into perspective it was the worst one-day sell off since 1987.
The Energy Index was worst affected dropping 15.56% or 970.6 points to just 6239.2 points.
Oil Search was down nearly 20% at $2.79 per share. Woodside fell 14% to $17.96. Santos shares plummeted 17.7% to $3.77 per share, while Origin also dropped more than 10% to $5.29 a share. Mining giant BHP was down 5.7% at close with shares worth $25.20.
Shares in Australian oil and gas producers have taken a severe hit over the past fortnight with majors, midcaps and small-caps all feeling the bite of a low oil price and volatile market as the coronavirus continues to rip through international markets.
Many ASX-listers have watched their share price more than halve over the last three months.
The Australian dollar crashed to an 11-year low of just US60.61c.
This morning was off to a bad start, spurred by central bank interest rate cuts designed to boost the market. Instead, it spooked investors. What's worse is there was no repeat of Friday's extraordinary comeback.
No one was spared. Even the gold patch fell over 13% with bullion trading at about US$1540 per ounce, down from as much as $1700/oz last week.
