Australian shares dropped for a second consecutive session on Tuesday as renewed weakness in iron ore weighed on sentiment, while New Zealand stocks edged lower. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 0.8 percent at 5,615.2 points, a whisker away from a three-month trough of 5,606.7 touched in early May. It has shed 2 percent so far this week.
Losses were widespread with energy and property stocks down more than 1 percent, closely followed by the heavyweight resources sector.
Yet, newly-listed South32, the spin-off of miner BHP Billiton rebounded 14 percent following Monday's lacklustre debut.
New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index eased 0.3 percent or 15.48 points to finish at 5,757.16.
South32, the new firm made up of BHP Billiton's non-core businesses, rebounded from a lacklustre debut a day earlier and was up 11 percent - the biggest gainer on the market and adding nearly $1 billion to its market capitalisation.
But the broader resources sector fell after prices of key commodities iron ore and oil dropped on international markets overnight.
BHP was down 1.5 percent and Rio Tinto declined 1 percent. Both companies are campaigning against a proposal from rival Fortescue Metals Group to have a government inquiry into how miners affect the price of iron ore. Fortescue was down 2.6 percent.
"The market is still not overly bullish at this point from late March when it broke through an important level," said Steven Daghlian, an analyst at CommSec, referring to hopes the market might trade over 6,000 points.