Australia: Shares fall on weak financials, tech; China Evergrande spooks markets

[BENGALURU] Australian shares fell for a third straight session on Tuesday as financial and tech stocks weighed, while debt crunched property firm China Evergrande rocked global markets on concerns about spillover risks to the world's second-largest economy.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.4 per cent to 7,221.5 at 0102 GMT, after losing 2.1 per cent on Monday in its steepest drop since Feb 26.

Investors have been unnerved by the fallout from heavily indebted real estate company China Evergrande Group, and were gauging the potential for a wider shakeout after a selloff hit stocks around the world.

Overnight, all three major US indexes ended sharply lower in a broad sell-off on fears of contagion from potential collapse of the Chinese real estate firm.

In Australia, the heavyweight financial stocks shed nearly 1 per cent, with Janus Henderson Group dropping 4 per cent, followed by Zip losing 3.8 per cent.

The "Big Four" banks declined between 1.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent.

Tech stocks slipped more than 1 per cent, as they tracked the Nasdaq index, which overnight suffered its biggest single-day drop since May.

Bucking the trend, miners rose about 1.1 per cent, with global miners Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals Group gained between 0.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent.

Coal miner New Hope Corp jumped as much as 5.3 per cent, after it swung to a full-year profit and forecast a strong performance by its businesses in fiscal 2022.

Energy stocks were up 1.04 per cent, led by Whitehaven Coal rising 3.5 per cent, followed by Ampol gaining 1.8 per cent.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.57 per cent to 13,104.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei was down 1.62 per cent.

REUTERS