Miners drag Australia shares lower as iron ore prices lag

Tribune Resources

15/09/2021 02:14

Sept 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Wednesday,
dragged down by losses in heavyweight miners BHP Group and Rio
Tinto due to softer iron prices, though gains in gold stocks
limited the fall.
    The S&P/ASX 200 index  .AXJO  was down 0.47% at 7,402.2
points, as of 0037 GMT. The benchmark closed 0.16% higher on
Tuesday.
    The mining index  .AXMM   fell 0.75%. Heavyweights BHP Group
 BHP.AX  and Rio Tinto  RIO.AX  lost 2.3% and 0.8%,
respectively, as Chinese iron ore futures  DCIOcv1  on the
Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.6%.
    Financial stocks  .AXFJ  slipped 0.75%, with The 'Big Four'
banks dropping between 0.8% and 1%. 
    Energy stocks  .AXEJ  fell 1.32​% led by Santos Ltd
 STO.AX , down 2.47%, followed by Beach Energy Ltd  BPT.AX 
losing 2.47%, even as oil prices ended largely flat on
Tuesday. O/R 
    On the upside, gold stocks  .AXGD  rose 0.87% led by Tribune
Resources Ltd  TBR.AX  up 4.9%, followed by Calidus Resources
Ltd  CAI.AX  gaining 2.7​%.
    The number of issues on the ASX that advanced were 672 while
683 declined as a 1-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
    Meanwhile, a measure of Australian consumer sentiment
bounced in early September amid hopes harsh coronavirus
restrictions would soon be eased. Victoria state's first-dose
vaccination rate neared the 70% level. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS9N2PN018 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2QG2XZ
    In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index  .NZ50  fell
0.15% to 13,088.9. The top percentage losers were Synlait Milk
Ltd  SML.NZ , down 1.58%, followed by Australia and New Zealand
Banking Group Ltd  ANZ.NZ , losing 1.29%.
    Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei  .N225  was down 0.61% at
30483.07, while S&P 500 E-minis futures  EScv1  were up 8
points, or 0.18%.
    

 (Reporting by Arundhati Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry
Jacob-Phillips)
 ((Arundhati.Dutta@thomsonreuters.com;))
 
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