Australian shares steady; Trump tariff concerns linger
AUSTRALIA-STOCKS/ CLOSE (CORRECTED):CORRECTED-Australian shares steady; Trump tariff concerns linger
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Miners manage to stay afloat; iron ore miners gain
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Gold stocks decline
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De Grey Mining soars on $3.3 bln buyout offer
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NZ benchmark gains 0.4%
By Nikita Maria Jino
Dec 2 - Australian shares held steady on Monday, hovering near the record highs scaled last week, as investors worried about the fallout of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tariff pledges on Chinese imports on the domestic mining sector.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.1% to 8,447.90 points at close. It is now around 29 points below the all-time high touched on Nov. 28.
Miners eked out marginal gains after advancing as much as 0.5% in early trade. Iron ore futures climbed on upbeat China factory data, although signs of faltering demand capped gains.
The resource-heavy Australian economy is reliant on exports of commodities, including iron ore, to its top consumer China and Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports threaten the demand of such commodities, which could adversely affect domestic miners.
"The overall impact is expected to be negative," Junvum Kim, senior sales trader at Saxo Asia Pacific, said.
"If not negative, then some selling pressures on broad-based metals, especially base metals and ferrous metals."
Sector heavyweights BHP Group and Rio Tinto gained 0.4% and 0.9%, respectively.
Gold stocks slipped 1.6%, tracking a fall in bullion prices.
However, De Grey Mining soared around 29% to its highest in more than 16 years on receiving a buyout offer from Northern Star Resources, valuing the gold miner at A$5 billion .
De Grey was the top gainer on the benchmark, while Northern Star shed 5.3% to weigh the most on the index.
Heavily weighted financials ended marginally lower, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia losing 0.3%.
Meanwhile, data showed the country's retail sales firmed for a third straight month in October, implying that the domestic central bank would not be in a hurry to cut interest rates as the underlying inflation failed to return to its target range.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index added 0.4% to end the day at 13,114.68 points.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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First Published:2 Dec 2024, 11:31 AM IST
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