Australian shares fell on Wednesday, as banks lost ground and top grocer Woolworths led consumer stocks lower after warning about lower food earnings, while sticky core inflation cemented views that the central bank will not cut rates until next year.
The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.8% lower at 8,180.4, its lowest close since Oct. 8.
Consumer stocks declined 3.6% to their lowest since late May, led by a more than 6% drop in Woolworths shares after the supermarket chain warned its first-half profit from its main Australian food division would dip.
Rival grocer Coles fell 2.4% a day ahead of its quarterly results.
Meanwhile, data showed that headline inflation slowed to a 3-1/2-year low in the third quarter, while the core measure was still sticky.
“RBA’s (Reserve Bank of Australia) preferred measure just didn’t come down far enough given the backdrop in the labour market, (which) is still fairly resilient and services inflation is still fairly sticky,” said Tony Syacamore, market analyst at IG Australia.
“Putting it all together, it’s goodbye to an RBA rate cut before Christmas, unfortunately.”
Rate-sensitive financials fell 0.9%, with the “Big Four” banks down in the range of 0.7% to 1.2%.
If a big retailer like Woolworths is seeing some sorts of behavioural changes at its cash registers, then potentially that may come through at banks as well in terms of credit demand and bad debt, among others, Sycamore said.
Banks, miners lead gains in Australian shares; inflation data awaited
Energy stocks slipped 0.7% as oil prices held near one-month lows, while miners edged 0.3% lower as iron ore prices slid.
Gold stocks were largely unchanged, while healthcare stocks were up 0.5%.
In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.7% to 12,694.84.
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