Australia: Mining, banking stocks dent shares in all-sector retreat

[BENGALURU] Australian shares dropped on Tuesday, pulled down by mining and banking sectors, as investors maintained a cautious stance ahead of the US retail sales data that is expected to reveal signs of any impact inflation has had on consumer spending.

The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.4 per cent at 7440.00 points, as of 1143 GMT, with every sector trading in the red.

Investors were on the sidelines ahead of key US retail sales data due later in the day, after a report last week showed consumer sentiment in the world's largest economy hitting its lowest point in a decade, due in part to inflation.

Among individual sectors back home, weak iron ore futures caused the heavyweight constituent miners to drop as much as 1.4 per cent, with BHP Group among the top 10 biggest losers, declining 2.2 per cent.

Australian banking stocks took a 0.6 per cent fall, with the "Big Four" lenders shedding between 0.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent.

Technology stocks followed course by slipping 0.6 per cent, with software firm Altium falling 2.8 per cent to be the worst performer.

Gold stocks also dropped 0.6 per cent to their biggest one-day percentage fall in a week despite strong bullion prices as investors flocked to the safe-haven metal on inflation worries.

Following the trend, the energy sub-index posted losses of about 0.4 per cent, with oil prices slightly weaker on demand-and-supply concerns.

Whitehaven Coal lost up to 1.6 per cent amid a global fall in coal stocks after an international agreement to reduce coal use at the Glasgow climate meet.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index was down 0.3 per cent at 12,920.460 points.

Village operator Summerset Group Holdings Ltd, down 1.8 per cent, hit its lowest level in more than two months and led losses in the NZX 50 index.

In other markets, the S&P 500 E-minis futures were up 0.02 per cent.

REUTERS