Australia’s top billionaires have lost $40bn since the start of the year as the stock market crashes.

The ASX has plunged 13% since January 1, with some of the country’s wealthy listeners losing more than three times as much of their shares.

Tech giants, mining magnates and retail bosses have been hit the hardest with tens of billions of dollars wiped out in a matter of months.

Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar lost the most, as their shares fell 45% to $13.7 billion, The Australian reported.

Mining giant Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest (pictured) follows next with a loss of $2.95 billion while WiseTech Global founder Richard White lost $2.82 billion.

Mining giant Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest follows next with a loss of $2.95 billion while WiseTech Global founder Richard White lost $2.82 billion.

Reece boss Alan Wilson lost $2.02 billion after the plumbing and bathroom giant hit the highest share price in its 101-year history in 2021.

The value of its shares has halved since the start of the year, dealing a severe blow to the family business.

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises chairman Jack Cowin has hemorrhaged $1.34 billion after experiencing exponential growth during the Covid pandemic.

Seven Group Holdings’ Kerry Stokes suffered a $1.3 billion drop while Block co-founder Nick Molnar suffered a $1.02 billion loss.

The slowdown comes after the Australian stock market suffered its worst fall since March 2020 on June 14.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 5.3% in early trading with more than $110 billion in stocks wiped out.

By noon, losses had moderated to a drop of 4.75%, with an index at 6,602.7 points.

It ended the session 3.84% weaker at 6,665.6 points.

Kerry Stokes of Seven Group Holdings (pictured, with wife Christine Simpson) suffered a $1.3bn fall

The plunge follows a poor session on Wall Street amid fears that a US inflation rate of 8.6% in May, the highest since 1981, would see the US Federal Reserve raise interest rates and potentially triggering a recession in the world’s largest economy.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said investors feared a recession in the world’s largest economy.

“The concern is that the Fed will have to be more aggressive with raising rates in future meetings, increasing the risk of a recession occurring over the next few months,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said the Australian Securities Exchange’s fall was the worst since March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared a Covid pandemic and a nationwide lockdown was imposed in Australia.

“They have a very similar feel to that big selloff we saw in March 2020 and yes, this is the worst day of trading we’ve seen since,” he said.