Australian shares tracked Wall Street peers to trade lower on Thursday as investors assessed minutes from the US central bank’s policy meeting, while global miner BHP lost foothold after a third rejection from smaller rival Anglo American.
The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 1% at 7,766.50 points, as of 0047 GMT.
The benchmark appeared poised for a third straight day of losses, if current trend stands.
All the three major stock indexes on the Wall Street closed lower overnight after the US Federal Reserve’s minutes revealed that the board discussed future interest rate hikes considering the slow rate of disinflation, but retained faith that price pressures would ease.
Back in Sydney, mining behemoth BHP Group fell 2.7% after its takeover target Anglo American rejected the Australian miner’s third buyout proposal after market hours on Wednesday.
Albeit, the British miner extended the offer period by another week giving BHP more time to pitch another proposal.
Australian miners retreated 2.5%, on track for their worst session day since mid-March, after a broad sell-off across most base metals.
Shares of Rio Tinto and Fortescue lost 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively.
Australian shares hit record high; RBA cautious on inflation
Financial stocks declined 1.1% with the “Big Four” lenders trading in the red. Rate-sensitive real estate stocks fell 1.5% to their lowest levels in more than a week.
Mirvac Group shed 0.7% while Dexus lost as much as 1.9% to its lowest level in nearly six months.
Energy stocks declined 1.1% as crude prices dropped on worries that US borrowing costs could be hiked again if inflation surged, a move that could hurt oil demand.
Sector majors Woodside Energy and Santos slumped 1.3% each. Gold stocks fell 3.3%, set for their third consecutive session of losses, as traders pulled back from bets on US Fed’s rate cuts this year.
Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining shed 3.1% and 3.8%, respectively.
New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index was largely flat at 11,729.64 points.
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