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Australia, NZ shares fall on Fed, weak commodities

Published 03/12/2015, 01:53 pm
Updated 03/12/2015, 02:00 pm
© Reuters.  Australia, NZ shares fall on Fed, weak commodities
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By Cecile Lefort and Rebecca Howard

SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Australian shares dropped 0.6 percent on Thursday with losses spread across the board, although energy stocks were hit hardest by another slide in oil prices.

Also undermining sentiment were hawkish-sounding comments from the head of the Federal Reserve, denting the appetite for risk assets.

The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO fell 32.33 points to 5,226.6 by 01:36 GMT. The benchmark eased 0.1 percent on Wednesday.

Natural resources came under pressure yet again, with Origin Energy ORG.AX off 2.5 percent following another steep fall in oil prices on Wednesday.

Coal miner Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX skidded 2.7 percent, pulling closer to record lows, while engineering services provider WorleyParsons WOR.AX plumbed 9-year lows with investors wary of its exposure to the mining sector.

BHP Billiton (L:BLT) BHP.AX and Rio Tinto (L:RIO) RIO.AX also came under pressure with prices of iron ore at a record low since The Steel Index (TSI) began compiling data in 2008.

Financial shares nudged down with the "Big Four" major banks losing as much as 0.8 percent.

Chemicals manufacturer Nufarm NUF.AX was the biggest performer with a fall of nearly 6 percent after downgrading its outlook for after-tax underlying profit because of challenging conditions in Brazil and Australia.

New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 0.3 percent or 20.86 points to 6,122.45, retracting from a record high of 6,162.970 in the previous session.

Accounting software company Xero fell 2.5 percent, headed towards its eighth consecutive session of losses after directors announced they had sold shares in the company last week.

Fletcher lost 1.36 percent while Coats Group fell 3.2 percent and Spark NZ lost 1.2 percent.

Online auction company Trade Me TME.NZ rose 0.25 percent, recovering from a dip earlier in the week.

Ryman Healthcare rose 1.15 percent and infrastructure company Infratil was up 0.81 percent.

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