Australia: Shares dip as miners, gold stocks weigh; New Zealand falls

[BENGALURU] Australian shares edged lower on Monday as a drop in commodity prices dragged the country's prominent mining and gold sectors, overriding a jump in local tech stocks on the heels of a rally in US peers.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.2 per cent to 5,951.5 by 0105 GMT. The benchmark rose 1.5 per cent on Friday.

Iron ore's worst weekly loss in nearly seven months and a drop in gold last week outweighed optimism on restrictions being eased in Victoria, where daily rise in new cases fell to single digits for the first time in more than three months.

"Surges in new Covid-19 cases has raised fears for the demand recovery of the cyclical commodities," analysts at ANZ Research said in a note, referring to the rise in global cases of the novel coronavirus.

The metals and mining sub-index fell up to 0.9 per cent and the gold sub-index slid as much as 0.5 per cent.

West African Resources and Westgold Resources, down 3.4 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively, were among the top percentage losers on both indexes.

The financial index lost up to 1 per cent, pulling back from previous session's gains. All the "Big Four" banks were trading in the red, down between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent.

Tech stocks climbed up to 2.1 per cent, tracking peers in the United States. EML Payments and Nearmap were the top gainers on the index.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.4 per cemt to 11,744.61 by 0105 GMT and was on track for its biggest intraday percentage loss since Aug 12.

Shares of dairy producers a2 Milk and Synlait Milk on fears that lower demand from Chinese resellers in Australia would hurt near term earnings

REUTERS