Australia Stocks Led Lower by Miners
24 February 2017 - 6:04PM
Dow Jones News
By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE, Australia--A further decline by Australian shares
Friday amid broad selling dragged the market lower for the week,
snapping two weeks of gains.
Weakness in base metals and a lackluster cue from Wall Street
weighed on sentiment, with the materials sector proving a big drag
for the day and the week.
Falling for a fifth session in the last six, the S&P/ASX 200
dropped 45.7 points, or 0.8%, to 5739.0--the sharpest drop since
the end of January.
Copper prices fell for three days straight before stabilizing in
Asian trade Friday, amid concerns about demand and high inventories
in China. Iron-ore prices have also been under pressure this week
after rebounding in recent months, with Chinese futures down
sharply on Friday.
"Caution about the prospects of near-term stimulus has softened
the outlook for demand growth in base metals. This change of
attitude coincided with remarks from Chinese authorities on plans
to develop a property tax, which could also soften demand growth
for metals," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets
in Sydney.
For the day, diversified miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were
3% and 4.2% lower, respectively, while iron-ore producer Fortescue
Metals Group was 3.4% weaker.
The materials subindex lost 2.1% on Friday and 4.1% for the
week.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 24, 2017 01:49 ET (06:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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