Australian shares slipped on Thursday, hit by health firm CSL Ltd and energy stocks, though gains in tech stocks tracking their US peers helped limit losses.
The S&P/ASX 200 index fell to 0.4% to close at 7,295.7, after losing up to 0.7% earlier to hit lowest since Dec.7. It extended losses into a third straight session.
Despite a blow-out monthly jobs report and the Reserve Bank of Australia pushing back rate hike expectations, CSL Ltd's 8.8% drop was enough to drag on the benchmark index.
CSL, one of Australia's largest stocks by market value, plunged on resuming trade after two days on announcing a discounted $5 billion placement to fund the $11.7 billion acquisition of Swiss drugmaker Vifor Pharma.
The stock single-handedly dragged the healthcare subindex lower by 5.1%, marking its sharpest single-day fall since March 2020.
Energy stocks fell 1.2%, slipping for the third session.
Beach Energy lost the most, down about 2%.
In contrast, Asian shares tracked Wall Street higher after the US Federal Reserve said it would end bond-buying stimulus in March, likely setting up three interest rate increases next year to tackle heated inflation.
Tech index was a bright spot, as it rallied 2.1% in tandem with its US peers, with the sector darling Afterpay settling 1.7% higher.
Among individual stocks, diversified miner IGO Ltd jumped 2.9%, hitting a record high after announcing the acquisition of nickel producer Western Areas for at A$1.10 billion, which jumped 6.2%.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index closed down 0.7% at 12,777.5 in its third session of losses. Data showed that the country's gross domestic product shrank 3.7% in the third quarter from the previous quarter.
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