* AMP slumps after Ares Management withdraws buyout offer
* Newcrest boosts gold sector after HY results
* Telstra rises after maintaining dividends
Feb 11 (Reuters) - Australian shares egded down on Thursday, as a slump in technology stocks following overnight losses in their Wall Street peers outweighed gains in Newcrest Mining NCM.AX and Telstra TLS.AX on upbeat half-year reports.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO slipped 0.09% to 6,850.60 by 0103 GMT. The benchmark closed 0.5% higher on Wednesday.
Major indexes on Wall Street slipped from record levels in the last trading session, with U.S. tech giants Tesla TSLA.O , Amazon.com AMZN.O , Microsoft MSFT.O and Apple AAPL.O weighing the most on the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC indexes.
The Australian tech sector .AXIJ followed suit, losing as much as 2.1%. The subindex was set for its worst day since Feb. 1.
WiseTech Global WTC.AX and Afterpay Ltd APT.AX shed more than 2% each.
The heavyweight financial sector .AXFJ slipped 0.9% with three of the 'Big Four' banks trading in red.
Wealth manager AMP Ltd AMP.AX fell as much as 10.7% to mark its biggest intraday percentage drop since July 31, after U.S.-based Ares Management ARES.N withdrew its $4.5 billion buyout offer. AMP also posted a 32% fall in annual profit. stocks .AXHJ also fell about 0.7%, with Nanosonics NAN.AX dropping over 7.5% and Healius HLS.AX losing more than 2%.
The gold index .AXGD rose 3.8% to its highest since Jan. 28, after Newcrest Mining NCM.AX , the country's largest listed gold miner, posted a 98% rise in half-yearly underlying profit. of Newcrest were set for their best session in eight months and were among top gainers on the ASX 200.
Telstra Corp TLS.AX , the largest telecom company in Australia, strengthened 3.5% after the firm held its interim dividend at 8 cents per share and special dividend of 3 cents per share. stock boosted the telecoms index .AXTJ over 1% to its highest since August 2017.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 slipped 0.5% to 12,770.63.
Top losers were Meridian Energy MEL.NZ and Vista Group VGL.NZ , both falling about 2.5%.