April 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Thursday, as losses across the board and a mixed finish on Wall Street overnight weighed on the benchmark index.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO fell 0.33% to 7,000.2 in early trade, after having closed above 7,000-mark on Wednesday for the first time since late-February last year.
Wall Street's main indexes closed mixed overnight, with the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC and S&P 500 .SPX seeing a fall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose on bumper bank earnings. .N
In other markets, Nikkei futures NKc1 were up 0.32% and S&P 500 E-minis futures EScv1 added 0.18%.
Australian tech shares .AXIJ fell 1.49%, led by losses in Nearmap Ltd NEA.AX , down 3.1%, and Xero Ltd XRO.AX that shed 2.83%.
The gold index .AXGD declined 1.54%, led lower by Regis Resources Ltd RRL.AX , down 13.26%. Evolution Mining Ltd EVN.AX followed it with losses of 4.91%.
Miners .AXMM rose 1.27% to limit losses on the benchmark. This was despite a fall in iron ore and gold prices.
Sandfire Resources Ltd SFR.AX jumped 4.2% to lead the gains on the sub-index, followed by Mineral Resources Ltd MIN.AX , up 3.43%.
The energy sub-index .AXEJ rose 1% as oil prices surged almost 5% on Wednesday on hopes of a return in demand.
The rally was led by Ampol Ltd ALD.AX , up 3.52%, and Beach Energy Ltd BPT.AX that climbed 2.69%.
Ampol on Thursday also reported that it expected to see recovery in Australian fuel demand as the year progresses. Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX fell as much as 14.4% after it lowered its sales forecast for the year due to issues at its Narrabri underground mine. stocks .AXFJ fell 0.41%. Zip Co Ltd Z1P.AX fell 2.29% and Credit Corp Group Ltd CCP.AX slid 1.71%.
In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 fell as much as 0.88%, with Contact Energy CEN.NZ losing the most, followed by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation FPH.NZ . Both lost as much as 5% and 2.5%, respectively.