Australian shares slipped in broad-based selling on Monday, with banks and miners leading the decline, while South32 rose after the diversified miner reported fourth-quarter manganese output ahead of analysts’ estimates.
The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.6% to 8,700.80 by 0023 GMT. The benchmark rose 2.1% last week in its strongest weekly performance since April.
Globally, investors were hoping for some progress in trade talks ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s August 1 tariff deadline.
In Sydney, miners fell 0.4% on Monday after gaining 1.7% last week. Shares of mining major BHP were down 0.2%.
Outperforming the mining sub-index, South32 rose more than 2% after the world’s largest producer of manganese clocked an output of 1.1 million wet metric tons of manganese for the quarter ended June 30. The result beat a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 850,000 wmt, as per Barrenjoey.
Financials dropped 0.8% after rising 1.6% last week, with the “Big Four” banks down between 0.6% and 1.1%.
Gold stocks declined more than 1%. Northern Star Resources and Genesis Minerals lost 0.5% and 1.5%, respectively.
Energy stocks fell 0.3%. Woodside Energy was down 0.3%, while Santos edged 0.1% lower.
Brent crude futures rose 5 cents to $69.33 a barrel after settling 0.35% lower on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 2 cents at $67.36 a barrel, following a 0.30% decline in the previous session.
Information technology stocks dropped 0.3%. WiseTech Global declined 0.2%, while Xero’s Australian shares shed 0.7%.
New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.2% to 12,905.69.
Data showed the country’s annual consumer inflation accelerated in the second quarter but came in below economists’ forecasts.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which in May forecast annual inflation for the quarter at 2.6%, held interest rates steady at this month’s policy meeting partly due to near-term price risks.
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