Published on 07/08/2026 at 02:45 am EDT
(Updates to close)
* Energy stocks report best day in nearly 4 months
* Miners hit three-month lows
* Gold stocks log third straight day of losses
* BHP posts lowest level in over a month
(Reuters) - Australian shares ended lower on Wednesday as losses in miners and gold stocks outweighed gains elsewhere, while investors assessed the impact of fresh U.S. attacks on Iran.
The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.2% lower at 8,785.10 points, after ending 0.3% lower on Tuesday.
Investors turned cautious after the U.S. military launched fresh strikes on Iran on Tuesday, raising doubts over last month's truce.
Oil prices rose, helping energy stocks gain 3.3% in their best session in nearly four months.
Banks followed suit, rising 0.7% after falling as much as 1.5% earlier in the day, with all the "Big Four" trading in the green.
"Today's weakness is broad based rather than concentrated in one part of the market...We're also seeing higher multiple growth names selling off sharply, which points to a general de-risking mood rather than a single sector story," said William Taylor, COO and portfolio manager at ETF Shares.
On the other hand, miners fell as much as 3%, reaching three-month lows, tracking weakness in copper prices.
BHP Group shed 2.9%, its lowest point since May 20. The mining giant said its workers at the Port Hedland operations gave notice of an eight-hour work stoppage set for July 16, costing them a daily revenue of A$120 million ($83.3 million).
Gold stocks joined the decline, slipping 2.4% and logging a third straight day of losses.
Tech stocks tumbled 1.9% and health stocks lost 0.3%.
The New Zealand benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.7% to 13,665.18 points. The country's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in three years, as widely expected, by 25 basis points to 2.50% earlier in the day.
($1 = 1.4411 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Aamir Sheik Khalid in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee

Sumber : Reuters