By Justin George Varghese
Oct 12 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Wednesday, dragged down by commodities, amid a sour start to Wall Street's corporate earnings season and raised bets on a year-end Federal reserve interest rate hike.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO fell as much as 0.84 percent to 5,433.6 points, the lowest level since Sept. 30.
Wall Street slipped as shares of Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) AA.N and Illumina Inc ILMN.O nose-dived after disappointing quarterly reports, casting a pall over the market. .N
Australian markets were also affected by a weak Australian dollar AUD=D4 which slumped to a three-week low, as its U.S. counterpart .DXY strengthened on expectations of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve as early as December. TOP/FRX
"Major factor weighing on the market at the moment is that strong (U.S.) dollar and the impact that it is having on commodity prices," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist with CMC Markets.
Materials were the biggest drag on the benchmark index, responsible for nearly half of the index losses.
Global miner BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) BHP.AX and rival Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) RIO.AX shed over 2 percent each. BHP spin-off South32 S32.AX was down about 3 percent, while Fortescue Metals Group FMG.AX fell 3.6 percent.
Energy stocks .AXEJ fell as much as 1.8 percent to post their biggest intra-day percentage loss in nearly a month as oil prices retreated from one-year highs on Tuesday, after OPEC said it was trying to reach a global agreement to cap production for at least six months. O/R
Oil major Woodside Petroleum Ltd WPL.AX fell 1.5 percent, while Santos Ltd STO.AX fell 2.3 percent.
"Clearly the industrial metals group has been tracking oil reasonably closely over the last few months and that fall in oil prices overnight has also weighed on the base metals," McCarthy added.
Bucking the trend, shares of gambling entertainment group Tabcorp Holdings Ltd TAH.AX , rose 2.8 percent, after the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) reversed a ban on greyhound racing that was due to start next July. Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 snapped prior day gains and inched down 0.24 percent or 16.8 points, to 7,107.47, the lowest since July 19.
The New Zealand dollar skidded to 2-1/2 month lows on Tuesday, a second day of weakness, after the country's central bank bluntly warned that further policy easing would be needed to push inflation higher. TOP/FRX
Declining issues outpaced advancers on the New Zealand exchange by a 1.8-to-1 ratio.
Materials and telecommunications accounted for nearly half of the losses on the benchmark.
Fletcher Building Ltd FMU.NZ was the biggest percentage loser, declining 1.2 percent.
Telecommunication service providers Spark New Zealand SPK.NZ and Chorus Ltd CNU.NZ also dragged the index lower, falling 0.6 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.
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