* Miners fall on weak iron ore prices
* Lower oil prices dent energy stocks
* Gold rises on safe haven buying
By Nikhil Subba
Sept 25 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Wednesday after the U.S. House of Representatives opened an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, while signs of more tensions in U.S.-China trade relations further undermined appetite for riskier assets.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO shed 0.6% or 43.2 points to 6,705.80 by 0214 GMT. The benchmark closed flat on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 saw its biggest daily drop in a month overnight after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the formal inquiry, which will examine whether Trump sought Ukraine's help to smear former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. to market jitters, Trump delivered a stinging rebuke to China's trade practices on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, leaving markets anxious after the more constructive tone adopted by both countries on the negotiations last week. equity market is probably more following the way of Wall Street, which had a sizeable fall...that has been the main drag so far today," said James Tao, market analyst at CommSec.
Miners .AXMM led losses on the Australian benchmark, dipping 1.4% to its lowest level since Sept. 13, hurt by a fall in ironore prices.
Iron ore producer Mt. Gibson Iron Ltd MGX.AX tumbled almost 8% to its lowest since Sept 10, while fellow miner Champion Iron Ltd CIA.AX shed almost 5%.
Nearly all components of the energy subindex .AXEJ were trading in negative territory, as prices for oil declined, sending the sector down by over 1%.
Oil and gas major Woodside Petroleum WPL.AX fell nearly 2% to a near two-week low, while Santos STO.AX declined 1.5%.
Financial stocks .AXFJ fell 0.4%, with most components, including the largest banks, trading lower.
Bucking the trend, gold stocks .AXGD advanced over 1%, helped by firmer bullion prices as growing calls for Trump's impeachment curbed risk appetite and drove investors into safe haven buying. Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 edged around 0.1% or 7.62 points higher to 10,866.33, helped by consumer and financial stocks.