Australian shares posted their worst performance of the year so far on Tuesday, falling nearly 2 percent, led by stop-loss selling while a firm Aussie dollar put pressure on exporters and companies with heavy US exposure. All sectors were in the red with financials and resources shares leading the sell-off.
The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 109.9 points or 1.9 percent to 5838.6 at the close of trade, its biggest decline since December 1. The benchmark ended down 0.6 percent on Monday, after failing for the fourth time since early March to breach the 6,000-points barrier. Since the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut its cash rate to 2.25 percent in February the ASX benchmark has been moving in a 5,750-5,996 range. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 0.5 percent or 28.84 points to finish the session at 5,740.82.