Australian shares ended Thursday's session 0.21 percent lower as investors sold banks before they trade ex-dividend and falling iron ore prices dragged down miners. The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 11.8 points to 5,506.1. The benchmark was mostly unchanged on Wednesday closing at 5,517.9 points. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.03 percent or 1.46 points to finish the session at 5,403.6.
An unusual move by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to re-state past employment data also weighed on sentiment, traders and economists said, because it raised doubts about the veracity of official jobs data. Stocks rallied at the open on hopes that a sweeping Republican mid-term election victory might inject momentum into the United States economy, but quickly retreated as investors cashed in on bank stocks before several banks trade ex-dividend next week.
"People are taking profits because the banks have rallied pretty hard from early October," said Quay Equities head of trading Tristan K'Nell. "A few of them are probably seeing that the profit that they make from the trades is better than the risk of holding the stock into ex-dividend." Largely unsurprising monthly employment data was overshadowed by questions about why the statistics bureau which compiles it was forced to revise several previous months' figures, K'Nell added.
Banks were the biggest weight on the market, with Westpac Banking Corp down 1.24 percent at A$34.16, Commonwealth Bank of Australia off by 0.8 percent at A$80.88, National Australia Bank 0.7 percent lower at A$34.19 and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group down 0.6 percent at A$33.58.
Miners were weaker after iron ore prices tumbled on concerns of dwindling demand from China, and gold prices fell. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd lost 3 percent to A$3.20 and gold giant Newcrest Mining dipped 2 percent to A$8.64. Engineering services company UGL dropped 11 percent to A$6.15 after it revealed it was exposed to cost blowouts at a power plant construction project.
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