Australia shares rise as upbeat earnings counter BHP slide

Australian shares rose on Wednesday as a handful of upbeat earnings reports offset a sharp drop in miner BHP after it announced the sale of its petroleum assets to Woodside Petroleum.

The S&P/ASX 200 inched 0.1% higher to 7,522.7 points by 0100 GMT. The benchmark closed 0.9% lower on Tuesday.

Financials were up over 1%, with the "big four" banks gaining between 0.5% and 1.7%.

Leading gains on the benchmark was Domino's Pizza Enterprises, which rose as much as 4.3% to a record high after a near 33% surge in annual profit.

Australia shares dip on weak corporate earnings, COVID-19 jitters

Payment solutions firm EML Payments jumped as much as 5.9% after it reported a 60% surge in fiscal 2021 revenue and forecast 2022 sales to rise further.

A near 7% slide in BHP offset those gains after the miner announced the sale of its petroleum business to Woodside Petroleum on Tuesday.

BHP was on track for its worst day since May 2020, while Woodside also slid more than 4%.

A subindex of miners shed over 2% and extended losses to a fourth consecutive session, weighed down by BHP as well as a dip in commodity prices.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 rose 0.6% to 12,712.28 points, despite the government's decision to impose a week-long lockdown on Tuesday to halt the potential spread of the Delta coronavirus variant.

Healthcare products distributor EBOS Group rose 3.5% on the back of a jump in annual profit.