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Miners lead declines with 0.5% fall
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Energy, tech stocks help cap losses
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China posts slow consumer prices rise
(Updates to close)
By Nausheen Thusoo
May 11 (Reuters) -
Australian shares closed marginally lower on Thursday, their third consecutive session of losses, amid a drag in miners and as investors weighed the ramifications of a cooling, but still historically high U.S. inflation reading.
The S&P/ASX 200 index inched 0.1% lower at the close of trade. Markets globally were influenced by the U.S. Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, which rose 4.9% in April from a year ago, compared with expectations of a 5% increase. Meanwhile, Australia's biggest trade partner China's consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in more than two years in April, reinforcing the signals that domestic demand remains lacklustre. On the local bourse, export-reliant miners fell 0.5% with behemoths BHP Group Ltd , Rio Tinto Ltd and Fortescue Metals Ltd closing lower.
The U.S. CPI data on Wednesday raised hopes that the Federal Reserve would not hike interest rates in its June meeting. However, Matt Simpson, Senior Market Analyst at City Index, said "there was no clear winner from the U.S. inflation report because, even if headline inflation was a touch lower than expected, it remains elevated by historical standards and relative to the Fed’s 2% target". Commenting on the future of rate hikes from the Fed and RBA, Simpson added that the central banks were likely going to wait until wage data, employment figures and the monthly inflation report is released before deciding whether to hold or hike rates, but hoped of a pause on the cards. Gold stocks descended 0.9% The overall fall was capped by a gain in tech and energy stocks , which gained 1.4% and 0.1% respectively. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.8% to finish the session at 11,887.76-points. (Reporting by Nausheen Thusoo in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
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