Australian shares edge lower as mining, gold stocks lose shine

Australian shares dipped on Monday, with miners and gold stocks shedding the most, while investors braced themselves for a tighter monetary policy stance from the central bank this week.

The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.2% at 8,620.4 points, as of 2311 GMT, pivoting from a four-session winning streak.

The benchmark closed 0.2% higher on Friday.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is likely to leave its cash rate unchanged at the end of its final meeting for 2025 on December 9, a Reuters poll indicated last week.

After recent data signalled resurgent inflationary pressures and that the economy grew at its fastest annual pace in two years, swaps now imply that the central bank will hold rates until early 2026, with increasing probabilities of a rate hike thereafter.

Investors also await local jobs data, due on Thursday.

In contrast, market watchers across the globe are expecting the US Federal Reserve to trim its cash rates by 0.25% later this week.

In Sydney, miners retreated as much as 0.5% on the back of weak iron ore prices, after clocking gains in the past six consecutive sessions. Mining behemoths BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue shed between 0.2% and 1.4%.

Australian gold miners followed suit, dropping as much as 1.4% and hovering near a two-week low, even as bullion rose on mounting expectations of a US rate cut that buoyed sentiment. Gold miner Northern Star Resources shed as much as 1.1%.

Energy stocks and healthcare stocks shed 0.3% each. Meanwhile, rate-sensitive financials and real estate stocks were largely unchanged. Among stocks, National Storage REIT rose as much as nearly 3% to a record high and emerged among the top gainers in the benchmark index after the company agreed to proceed with a A$4 billion ($2.65 billion) buyout by the Brookfield–GIC consortium.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index inched 0.2% lower to 13,509.39 points.