Dec 22 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Tuesday, with energy and gold stocks leading the declines, as oil prices dropped and investors exited risky assets over concerns of a new highly transmissible coronavirus strain in Britain.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO declined 0.3% by 0021GMT.
The new coronavirus strain, indentified in the UK, is said to be up to 70% more transmissible than the original. It has led to a shut-down of much of Britain and set off tighter restrictions in Europe. Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Jordan, Hong Kong, among others, have suspended travel for Britons, while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman closed their borders completely to the UK. oil prices plunged as tighter restrictions and fresh travel curbs sparked worries about a slower recovery in fuel demand.
As a result, the Australian energy index .AXEJ tumbled more than 2% to hit its lowest since Nov. 23
Santos STO.AX and Woodside Petroleum WPL.AX both fell as much as 2.4% to each touch a near three-week low.
Gold stocks .AXGD declined about 2% as bullion prices fell.
Ramelius Resources RMS.AX shed over 5% to hit a one-week low, while Silver Lake Resources SLR.AX fell more than 4%. The wider mining sub-index .AXMM fell as much as 1.3%.
Bucking the downward trend, healthcare stocks .AXHJ gained 0.5%, with CSL CSL.AX adding about 1% and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare FPH.AX gaining about a percent.
MGC Pharmaceuticals MXC.AX jumped 16.7% after it was granted an assistance of 3.1 million euros (A$5 million) cash grant from Malta Enterprise to set up a fully functional GMP facility for the production of ArtemiC in Malta. Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 advanced 0.9% to 12,681.69.
Pacific Edge PEB.NZ gained over 8% while Mercury NZ MCY.NZ added over 5%.