Australia: Shares fall after Wall Street sell-off; Oil Search jumps

[BENGALURU] Australian shares fell more than 1 per cent on Tuesday, following a sell-off on Wall Street as rising global coronavirus cases soured risk appetite, while Oil Search jumped after rejecting a takeover bid from Santos.

The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 1.1 per cent to 7,205.0 by 0014 GMT, hitting its lowest level since June 2.

Overnight, all three major US stock indexes ended sharply lower as rising Delta variant infections dampened risk appetite and revived worries about a slowdown in economic recovery and fresh lockdowns.

Heavyweight miners were the top drags on the Australian benchmark index, losing as much as 2.2 per cent.

Perenti Global and Champion Iron were the biggest losers in the sub-index, shedding 6.7 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively.

BHP Group slipped 2.7 per cent after the world's largest listed miner reported a drop in its fourth-quarter iron ore output, and lower annual production across four of its six major divisions.

Energy stocks fell 2.3 per cent and were headed for a fourth consecutive session of drop, with Worley and Beach Energy being the top drags, losing about 4 per cent each.

Oil Search jumped as much as 5.2 per cent after it rejected a takeover offer by Santos, which valued the Papua New Guinea-focused oil and gas producer at A$8.83 billion (S$8.83 billion), saying it was "not in the best interest of shareholders".

Tech stocks erased early gains to trade 0.4 per cent higher, with buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay adding 1.9 per cent after it announced the launch of a new banking application in October.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.9 per cent to 12,543.8, hitting its lowest since June-end.

The top percentage losers were Serko, down 3.4 per cent, and Vista Group International, losing 2.8 per cent.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei was down 0.81 per cent to 27,429.12, while S&P 500 E-minis futures were up 0.37 per cent.

REUTERS