Australian shares were slightly lower on Thursday, pulling back from the previous session’s near 10-year high after a lacklustre Wall Street response to the much-awaited US tax cut approval.
However, local resource stocks rallied on firmer metals prices.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 12.4 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 6063.2 at 0134 GMT. It rose 0.1 per cent on Wednesday.
Financials and real estate were the biggest decliners on the main board with Australia’s biggest lender Commonwealth Bank, the biggest burden on the index, losing 0.4 per cent.
Retail properties manager Scentre Group Ltd shed 1.8 per cent, pulling down the sector. Telco Telstra Corp Ltd declined 0.8 per cent, weighing on the benchmark.
Materials stocks helped partially offset losses in other parts of the market with global miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto gaining 1.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.
Shares of target AWE fell 2.8 per cent post the news while Mineral Resources climbed 3.5 per cent to its highest in nearly a month.