June 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell for a seventh
straight session on Monday to mark their longest losing streak
since March 2020, as miners tumbled due to a sell-off in
commodities over declining China demand and deepening fears of a
global recession.
The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.64% lower at 6,433.4,
with the country's three top miners losing roughly A$26.06
billion ($18.18 billion) in market value.
Shares of the three mining behemoths - Rio Tinto,
BHP and Fortescue - dropped between 5.1% and
8.6%. The mining index tumbled 5.1%, hitting its lowest
since Dec. 13 and extending its fall after last week's 7.4%
drop.
Energy Stocks slid 5.2% to be among the biggest
laggards on falling oil prices, as concerns about slowing global
economic growth and fuel demand outweighed worries about
tightening supplies.
Heavyweights Woodside Energy Group and Santos
declined nearly 5% and 6%, respectively.
Financials, however, climbed 0.55% to break their
nine-session losing streak, with the so called "Big Four" banks
rising in a range of 0.3% to 1.2%.
Investors are now awaiting the Reserve Bank of Australia
minutes due on Tuesday for any interest rate policy cues, said
Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst at OANDA.
In corporate news, building materials manufacturers
Brickworks and Boral are cutting back
operations, hiking prices and considering moving production
offshore to manage a spike in power and gas bills. Shares of
Brickworks closed 0.2% higher, while those of Boral rose
0.75%.
In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index
closed almost flat 10,588.2.
($1 = 1.4337 Australian dollars)
(Reporting By Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu
Sahu)