Australia: Shares fall as tech stocks drag, Star Entertainment slumps

[BENGALURU] Australian shares slipped on Monday as tech stocks tracked Wall Street peers lower, while heavy losses in casino operator Star Entertainment's shares further weighed on the benchmark index.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell as much as 1 per cent to 7,255.2 points by midday, after gaining in the past two sessions.

Tech stocks slumped up to 2.9 per cent, the biggest losers on the benchmark, tracking a weak finish on Wall Street on Friday after data showed a weaker-than-expected US jobs growth in September.

Buy-now-pay-later juggernaut Afterpay slid as much as 4.5 per cent, followed by Xero falling 3.2 per cent.

Star Entertainment Group led individual losses by shedding as much as 20.8 per cent after media reports accused the company of systemic governance failings, including suspected enabling of money laundering and large-scale fraud.

The 'Big Four' banks were all down more than 0.8 per cent, dragging the financial index by about 0.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, Australia was bracing for more Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations as it moved toward gradually easing restrictions, with the vast majority of its people getting vaccinated against the virus.

The Aussie energy sub-index was an outlier, gaining as much as 1.4 per cent to its highest levels since January as a global energy crunch boosted oil prices.

Fuel supplier Ampol jumped 6.1 per cent as New Zealand peer Z Energy agreed to a NZ$1.97 billion (S$1.9 billion) takeover bid.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose over 0.2 per cent to 1,2543.70, with Z Energy shares gaining about 8 per cent.

REUTERS