Australian shares track Wall Street lower on weak US jobs data

Australian shares fell on Thursday to track a slide in Wall Street overnight due to weak US jobs data, with most major sectors on the domestic benchmark index seeing a sharp decline.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell as much as 1.5% to 6,716.1 by 0030 GMT and was on track to end a three-day winning streak. It had gained 0.8% on Wednesday following strong fourth-quarter GDP data.

On Wall Street, the US Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.39%, the S&P 500 lost 1.31%, while Nasdaq lost 2.70% after data showed US private employers hired fewer workers than expected in February.

Rising yields on benchmark US Treasury bonds also weighed on equities in early Asian trade.

Among individual shares and sectors, Australia's healthcare stocks fell 3.7% and were set for their worst day in six months. CSL Ltd fell 5.6% and Pro Medicus lost 2.6%.

Losses on the tech-heavy Nasdaq weighed on their Australian peers, as a sub-index of technology stocks fell 1.5%.

TechnologyOne Ltd shed 4.1%, while Bravura Solutions slipped 5.1%. The gold index dropped 2.5% as bullion prices slid more than 2% to their lowest in nearly nine months on Wednesday.

Shares of West African Resources Ltd fell as much as 6.3%, followed by Regis Resources and De Grey Mining , down 3.8% and 3.7%, respectively.

Metal stocks fell 2.3%, with mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto down 3.2% and 5.7%, respectively.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index skidded 0.8% to 12,258.7.

Diary firm Synlait Milk was the biggest loser on the index as it slid as much as 13% to a near four-year low after withdrawing its 2021 earnings outlook.