Australia: Shares skid as concerns over bond yields persist

[BENGALURU] Australian shares fell on Friday, following a slump on Wall Street as investors turned jittery after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell failed to quell concerns around rising US bond yields.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell as much as 1.1 per cent to 6,687.1 by 0002 GMT.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1 per cent and the S&P 500 lost 1.3 per cent. The Nasdaq dropped 2.1 per cent and was down nearly 10 per cent from its February record high.

Mr Powell's comments did not point to changes in the Fed's asset purchases to tackle the recent jump in yields, even as some investors had expected it would step up purchases of long-term bonds.

The Australian benchmark was still on track to record modest gains for the week, helped by upbeat fourth-quarter gross domestic product data and the central bank's pledge to hold interest rates at a record low earlier this week.

Technology stocks tracked losses in the tech-heavy Nasdaq and fell 3.5 per cent. Nearmap shed 4.1 per cent, while buy-now-pay-later giant Afterpay gave up 2.8 per cent.

The mining sub-index slid 0.6 per cent, weighed down by a 12.5 per cent drop in lithium-boron supplier Ioneer after a discounted share placement.

Heavyweights Rio Tinto and BHP declined as much as 2.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively.

However, energy stocks outperformed as they surged 3.1 per cent after crude prices hit a more than one-year high overnight.

Oil Search rose 4.51 per cent and Woodside Petroleum gained 3.9 per cent.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.8 per cent to 12,121.6.

Dairy producer Fonterra hit its highest since August 2018 after it raised the outlook for prices it would pay farmers for the 2021 season for the second time in just over a month.

REUTERS