By Cecile Lefort and Rebecca Howard
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, May 24 (Reuters) - Australian shares were down for a second day in subdued trade on Tuesday, as falling oil prices pressured energy firms although miners proved resilient to more weakness in iron ore.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO nudged 0.1 percent lower, or 11.3 points, to 5,306.9 by 0156 GMT. It dipped 0.6 percent in the last session, having touched its lowest level in two weeks.
The benchmark index has been drifting sideways since scaling a nine-month high of 5,425.2 on May 11.
Energy stocks were the hardest-hit on renewed weakness in oil prices with Oil Search OSH.AX down 1.6 percent, having earlier fallen as much as 2.0 percent to a low of A$6.48. Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX dropped 3 percent, while WorleyParsons WOR.AX fell 1.2 percent.
It was another grim day for Australia's top listed travel agent Flight Centre Travel Group FLT.AX which tumbled 6 percent to a nine-month low. The company issued a profit warning on Monday, blaming a global airfare war. however, managed to offset a 5.4 percent fall in the price of iron ore, Australia's top export earner.
BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) BHP.AX rose 0.7 percent, while fellow global miner Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) RIO.AX gained 0.4 percent. Fortescue Metals Group FMG.AX , however, gave up 0.7 percent.
The big four local banks were largely steady to higher with Macquarie Bank Ltd MQG.AX up 1.2 percent, followed by Westpac Banking Corp WBC.AX and Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX around 0.3 percent higher each.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group ANZ.AX dipped 0.1 percent.
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New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 fell 0.5 percent or 34.5 points to 6,873.57, having touched its weakest since May 6.
The biggest loser was Tower TWR.NZ , down 7.3 percent, after it reported a half year loss. A2 Milk ATM.NZ was also under pressure, down 1.9 percent.
In the other direction Kathmandu KMD.NZ was up 2.8 percent. ($1 = 1.4802 New Zealand dollars) (Editing by Shri Navaratnam)