Australian shares ended a choppy session lower on Wednesday, with mining and gold stocks leading the fall on weak commodity prices, while interest rate hikes and broadening inflationary pressures across the globe kept investors on edge.
The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.23% lower at 6,508.5, declining for an eighth session in nine.
Global markets were volatile as investors continue to assess how worried they need to be about central banks pushing the world economy into recession as they attempt to curtail red-hot inflation with rate increases.
“Until we see a peak in inflationary pressures or a change in central bank hawkishness, we’d anticipate this volatility to persist and for markets to remain somewhat fraught,” said Kerry Craig, a global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
Miners slipped 0.37% and were among the top drags on the Australian benchmark, weighed down by weak iron ore prices as worries grew about steel oversupply in China.
However, iron ore behemoths BHP and Rio Tinto gained 0.2% and 0.6%, respectively. Gold stocks dropped 0.9% on softer bullion prices.
Australian shares end higher on central bank’s rate-hike stance
Newcrest Mining, the country’s largest gold miner, dropped 0.8%, while Northern Star Resources fell 0.25%.
Energy stocks, however, gained 1.5%, with oil and gas major Woodside Energy Group and Santos up 1.95% and 1.21%, respectively.
In other news, shares of Zip Co closed 11.4% lower after hitting a six-year low, as the buy-now-pay-later firm said it would increase consumer fee and merchant repricing, among others, to counter the effect of higher interest rates.
In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index closed 0.21% lower at 10,678.67.
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