The S&P/ASX 200 index was down as much as 0.3% to 7,307.7 points by 0020 GMT.
The first-quarter inflation print is due on Wednesday and a Reuters poll of economists projets headline inflation to be 1.3% quarter on quarter, compared with the prior quarter's 1.9%. On Monday, miners dropped 2.2%, with iron ore mining giant Fortescue Metals giving up as much as 2.6% even as it posted better-than-expected iron ore shipments during the March quarter.
South32 Ltd dived as much as 10% after the diversified miner cut the output guidance for several operations hit by wet weather and other issues in the third quarter. The gold sub-index followed suit to retreat 1.2%, with heavyweights Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources losing 1.3% each.
Energy stocks gave up as much as 0.8%. Sector majors Woodside Energy and Santos slipped 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively. However, heavyweight financials added 0.3%, helping negate the losses on the broader bourse. All top four banks advanced between 0.4% and 1%, respectively. Separately, Australian funeral services provider InvoCare slipped 15% after U.S.-based private equity firm TPG Global withdrew its A$1.81 billion ($1.21 billion) buyout bid for the company. In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index dipped 0.1% to 11919.18 points.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said that it would implement a 250% risk weigh for bank investments in the Business Growth Fund (BGF) down from the current 400%. (Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)
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