Australian shares on Tuesday eased from a record peak notched in the previous session, as tech stocks took cues from an overnight sell-off in growth-focused shares on Wall Street amid inflation jitters.

The S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.48% at 7,138.1 points at 0020 GMT.

On Wall Street, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was the biggest loser as US inflation fears drove investors away from market-leading growth stocks towards cyclicals, which stand to benefit most as the economy reopens.

Back home, tech stocks followed suit and were the biggest drags on the Australian benchmark as they plunged 2.17%.

Nearmap Ltd was down 4.79%, followed by WiseTech Global Ltd, which lost 3.51%.

Gold stocks fell 1.93% despite prices of bullion hovering near a three-month high. Bellevue Gold gave up 5.15%, while SSR Mining fell 4.09%.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.31% to 12,619.2 points.

Shares in a2 Milk sank as much as 5.9%, extending losses from the previous session, after the dairy producer cut its annual sales forecast for the third time on Monday.

In other markets, Japan's Nikkei was down 1.17% at 29172.84 points, and the S&P 500 E-minis futures edged 0.1% lower.