Mining, banking stocks dent Australia shares in all-sector retreat

Summerset group

16/11/2021 24:14

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Australian shares dropped on Tuesday,
pulled down by mining and banking sectors, as investors
maintained a cautious stance ahead of the U.S. retail sales data
that is expected to reveal signs of any impact inflation has had
on consumer spending.
    The S&P/ASX 200 index  .AXJO  was down 0.4% at 7440.00
points, as of 1143 GMT, with every sector trading in the red.
    Investors were on the sidelines ahead of key U.S. retail
sales data due later in the day, after a report last week showed
consumer sentiment in the world's largest economy hitting its
lowest point in a decade, due in part to inflation.  .N 
    Among individual sectors back home, weak iron ore futures
caused the heavyweight constituent miners  .AXMM  to drop as
much as 1.4%, with BHP Group  BHP.AX  among the top 10 biggest
losers, declining 2.2%.  IRONORE/ 
    Australian banking stocks  .AXFJ  took a 0.6% fall, with the
"Big Four" lenders shedding between 0.2% and 0.6%.
    Technology stocks  .AXIJ  followed course by slipping 0.6%,
with software firm Altium Ltd  ALU.AX  falling 2.8% to be the
worst performer.
    Gold stocks  .AXGD  also dropped 0.6% to their biggest
one-day percentage fall in a week despite strong bullion prices
as investors flocked to the safe-haven metal on inflation
worries.   GOL/ 
    Following the trend, the energy sub-index  .AXEJ  posted
losses of about 0.4%, with oil prices slightly weaker on
demand-and-supply concerns.  O/R 
    Whitehaven Coal Ltd  WHC.AX  lost up to 1.6% amid a global
fall in coal stocks after an international agreement to reduce
coal use at the Glasgow climate meet.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2S60AC
    New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index  .NZ50  was down
0.3% at 12,920.460 points. 
    Village operator Summerset Group Holdings Ltd  SUM.NZ , down
1.8%, hit its lowest level in more than two months and led
losses in the NZX 50 index.
    In other markets, the S&P 500 E-minis futures  EScv1  were
up 0.02%.

 (Reporting by Yamini C S; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
 ((Yamini.CS@thomsonreuters.com;))
 
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