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Lithium miners among top laggards
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Gold stocks the only ones in green
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Investors await U.S. non-farm payrolls data
(Updates to close)
By Rishav Chatterjee
March 10 (Reuters) - Australian shares posted their
sharpest daily loss in over four months on Friday, weighed down
by financials and miners in a sell-off over prospects of further
interest rate hikes.
The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 2.3% to 7,144.7 points.
The benchmark lost about 2% over the week.
Investor sentiment remained subdued during the week after
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish remarks,
highlighting the need of a high interest rate environment to
tame inflation.
Investors now await U.S. non-farm payrolls data for
February, due later in the day, which is expected to fuel
inflationary woes.
Back in Sydney, banks led the losses with the
sub-index closing 2.8% lower.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
said that country's six largest banking service providers have
paid or offered A$4.7 billion ($3.09 billion) in compensation to
customers charged with higher fees.
All of the "Big Four" lenders fell, with ANZ Group Holdings
Ltd down 2.8%. Financial conglomerate Macquarie Group
Ltd and asset manager AMP Ltd also fell.
"The bank sell-off is clearly driving the rest of the market
lower as lenders face their own set of challenges, which include
a slowing property market and greater competition for few loans
as the economy slows," said Carl Capolingua, Market Analyst at
ThinkMarkets Australia.
Local lithium miners emerged as one of the top laggards on the benchmark, with seven of top ten losers on ASX-200 being lithium producers. Shares tanked as spodumene prices hit one-year low. Heavyweights Mineral Resources Ltd and Pilbara Minerals Ltd lost 6.6% and 7.1% respectively. Energy shares and miners tracked the broader market despite higher or unchanged underlying commodity prices. The sub-indexes closed down around 3.3% each. Mining stocks BHP Group Ltd , Rio Tinto Ltd , Fortescue Metals Group Ltd , and oil and energy majors Woodside Energy Group Ltd and Santos Ltd all traded in the red. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.8% to end the day at 11,727 points.
($1 = 1.5195 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
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