Australian shares finished flat on Tuesday with Wall Street offering no lead and bulls chastened by the repeated failure to break major chart resistance in the past week. The S&P/ASX 200 index finished at 5,166 points at the close of trade. It fell 0.3 percent on Monday.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index hit a record high and closed up 0.3 percent or 22.3 points to finish the session at 6,664.25. The index hit a record high of 6,664.26 as yield-hungry investors continued to shift funds out of bank deposits amid New Zealand's record low interest rates. Telecoms was the biggest gaining sector with a jump of 1.9 percent, led in large part by upbeat results from internet provider TPG Telecom.