Australian shares closed lower on Tuesday, with heavyweight mining stocks weighing the most after top customer China decided to step up efforts to regulate iron ore prices, while investors waited for the US Federal Reserve chair’s comments.
The S&P/ASX 200 index finished 0.3% lower at 7,131.0 points, breaking a four-day winning streak.
All sub-indexes in Australia finished in the red, with miners leading the fall by declining 0.7% on China potentially regulating prices of the steel-making ingredient to crack down on “malicious” price speculation. Sector giants BHP Group, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue Metals Group slid between 0.3% and 1%.
“The outlook for a lot of these commodity companies in Australia is probably going to be brighter since all big miners don’t only depend on iron ore,” Jessica Amir, market strategist at Saxo Capital Markets, said, playing down the session’s weakness.
Investors are also keenly awaiting Fed chair Jerome Powell’s speech at a central bank conference for clarity on the future of rate hikes.
Amir believes investors are preempting a decline in December inflation in the United States, due later in the week, adding “the Fed and RBA could potentially take the foot off the gas and remain a bit more dovish when it comes to rate hikes.”
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Local gold stocks slipped 2.5%, with heavyweight Newcrest Mining shedding 2.3%. Financials logged 0.3% fall, with the “big four” banks loosing between 0.3% and 0.7%.
Energy stocks fell 0.3% after oil prices were little changed, giving up some of the gains from the previous session.
Woodside Energy and Santos fell 0.1% and 0.9%, respectively.
Meanwhile, Australian government announced a proposal to make the country’s top polluters slash their emissions by at least 30% over the next seven years.
Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index added 0.2% to finish the session at 11,665.26.
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