Australia: Shares ease from record peak on tech rout

[BENGALURU] Australian shares on Tuesday eased from a record peak notched in the previous session, as tech stocks took cues from an overnight sell-off in growth-focused shares on Wall Street amid inflation jitters.

The S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.48 per cent at 7,138.1 points at 0020 GMT.

On Wall Street, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was the biggest loser as US inflation fears drove investors away from market-leading growth stocks towards cyclicals, which stand to benefit most as the economy reopens.

Back home, tech stocks followed suit and were the biggest drags on the Australian benchmark as they plunged 2.17 per cent.

Nearmap was down 4.79 per cent, followed by WiseTech Global, which lost 3.51 per cent.

Gold stocks fell 1.93 per cent despite prices of bullion hovering near a three-month high. Bellevue Gold gave up 5.15 per cent, while SSR Mining fell 4.09 per cent.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.31 per cent to 12,619.2 points.

Shares in a2 Milk sank as much as 5.9 per cent, extending losses from the previous session, after the dairy producer cut its annual sales forecast for the third time on Monday.

In other markets, Japan's Nikkei was down 1.17 per cent at 29172.84 points, and the S&P 500 E-minis futures edged 0.1 per cent lower.

REUTERS