Australian shares inched lower on Tuesday, dragged by banks, real estate stocks, and miners, while cautious investors globally awaited key economic data from the United States for further policy direction slated to be released this week.
The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.1% to 7,743.8 points by 0029 GMT.
The benchmark ended 0.01% higher on Monday.
A slew of data including US core consumer price index, US producer price, and Australian employment is set to be released later in the week, which could provide insight into the central banks’ monetary easing policy.
Markets are pricing in around an 80% chance of a rate cut at the Fed’s September meeting, with almost 44 basis points (bps) of reductions in total expected in 2024, LSEG data showed.
Financials sub-index led losses on the benchmark by falling 0.2%, with the “big four banks” ending between 0.2% and 0.5% lower.
Rate-sensitive real estate stocks followed suit and fell by 0.5%.
Shares of real estate firms Charter Hall Group slipped by 1.1% while Goodman Group lost 0.5%.
Mining sector lost 0.1%, with BHP Group dropping 0.4% after making a revised $42.7 billion bid for Anglo American PLC.
Gold stocks lost 0.9%, with shares of Northern Star Resources, Genesis Minerals, Evolution Mining down between 1.2% to 1.7%.
Among other sectors, energy stocks were largely flat with shares of Woodside Energy and Santos down 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively.
Australian shares hit record high; RBA cautious on inflation
Information technology firms lost 0.2%, with shares of Xero and ASX-listed shares of Block slipping by 0.8% and 1.9%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the local government will release its annual budget for fiscal 2024 on Tuesday with a second consecutive budget surplus due to strong employment and high commodity prices.
Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell by 0.1% to 11,637.18 points.
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