Australia: Shares end slightly lower as virus curbs increase

[BENGALURU] Australian shares closed marginally lower on Tuesday, with real estate, miners, and energy stocks witnessing a slide, as increasing Covid-19 curbs across the country dented sentiment.

The S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 0.08 per cent at 7,301.2, recovering from 0.9 per cent drop during the session.

Australia reported on Monday that five of the country's eight states and territories have been hit by outbreaks of the Delta variant of Covid-19, with around 80 per cent of the population under some form of restrictions.

"The market's confidence has been shaken with Perth and Brisbane joining Sydney and Darwin in a lockdown, and the earnings downgrade from Kathmandu is a red flag about the market's conditions if lockdowns persist," said James Tao, market analyst at CommSec.

"The real estate sector was probably expected to take a hit as virus curbs increased but dividend calendar has also weighed on the sector."

Most property stocks fell as they went ex-distribution, which means that property stocks traded without the rights to the next distribution or dividend on Tuesday.

Mall operator Vicinity Centres and property firm Stockland, which traded ex-dividend, were among the top percentage losers on the sub-index, dropping up to 4.97 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively.

Outdoor retailer Kathmandu Holdings fell 5.4 per cent after downgrading its full-year earnings, raising an alarm for retailers by underlining damage to the industry from repeated lockdowns.

Miners closed 0.6 per cent lower, pressured by heavyweights Rio Tinto and BHP Group that fell up to 1.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. Iron ore futures dropped over 3 per cent on demand concerns from China.

Local tech stocks trimmed losses on the benchmark, closing 0.7 per cent higher. They took cues from a strong finish on the tech-heavy Nasdaq on Wall Street. Buy-now-pay-later darling Afterpay jumped up to 2.4 per cent.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.3 per cent to 12,639.8.

REUTERS