Wesfarmers, Lynas drag Australian shares lower; banks, tech stocks drop

Australian shares fell for a second straight session on Friday, dragged by blue-chip companies such as Wesfarmers and Lynas, with broad falls in banking and technology stocks weighing on the markets further.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.3% to 7,469 by 0047 GMT. The benchmark had closed 0.54% lower at 7,491.2 on Thursday.

Retail conglomerate Wesfarmers skidded as much as 2.7% after warning that recent lockdowns had hammered sales across its divisions. It also reported a 16% jump in annual profit and raised its final dividend.

Technology stocks fell 1.3%, tracking Wall Street that fell overnight on concerns of a potential shift in US Federal Reserve policy.

Data centre operator NEXTDC Ltd led losses on the sub-index, falling 3.64%. Appen Ltd followed suit, falling 3.41%, after it reported a 35% slump in its half-year underlying net profit after tax.

Banks fell 0.2% and among the "Big Four" lenders, Westpac led losses, falling as much as 0.7%. The country's biggest lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia slipped 0.5%.

The world's biggest rare earths miner outside China, Lynas Rare Earths hit a more than one-week high on a record full-year profit, before skidding up to 4.4%.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.09% to 13,063.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei was down 0.78% at 27,525.97 points, while S&P 500 E-minis futures were down 0.06%.