Domestic lenders led the declines falling as much as 1.1%, set to snap a three-session rally.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia , National Australia Bank , ANZ Group Holdings and Westpac Banking Corp slipped between 0.4% and 5.0%.
Investor focus now shifts to the U.S. consumer prices data for April due later in the day, which will be seen as a crucial indicator of how well the world's largest economy is recovering. The market expects the CPI index to have gained 0.4% in April from the month before and 5.5% from a year earlier on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, a Reuters poll of economists showed. Energy stocks retreated 0.5% even as oil prices ticked up, with sector majors Woodside Energy and Santos losing 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. Local miners were down 0.2%, with mining giant Rio Tinto falling 0.4%.
However, ioneer Ltd advanced 7.1% on signing a commercial offtake agreement with U.S.-based Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp for manufacturing of lithium carbonate in Nevada. Bucking the trend, technology stocks advanced as much as 0.4%. Leading gains on the sub-index, Life360 and Megaport jumped 2.4% and 1%, respectively.
Appen Ltd tanked as much as 19.4% after the AI training provider flagged a soft start to the year due to unfavourable economic conditions.
Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50
index was largely unchanged.
(Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi
Aich)
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