Australia Market falls ahead of RBA's policy meeting

Australia stock market finished session lower on Monday, 06 February 2023, as investors opted to book profit following three days of consecutive gains, on caution ahead of the central bank policy decision, with shares in realty, industrials, and tech sectors being notable losers.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 19.13 points, or 0.25%, to 7,53.98. The broader All Ordinaries index declined 25.89 points, or 0.33%, to 7,745.92.

Total 7 of 11 sectors ended higher along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. A-REIT was worst performing sector, erasing 1.94%, followed by healthcare (down 0.8%), industrials (down 0.68%), and information technology (down 0.66%) issues. Energy was the best performing sector, gaining 0.92%.

The top performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were NEWCREST MINING and BEACH ENERGY, up 9.26% and 3.7% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were LAKE RESOURCES and SAYONA MINING, down 6.21% and 5.77% respectively.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The value of retail sales in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 3.9% on month in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday - coming in at A$34.472 billion. Individually, sales for food rose 0.3% on month, while household goods -7.8%), clothing (-13.1%), department stores (-14.3%) and other retailing (-4.6%) all were down. On a yearly basis, retail sales were up 7.5%. For the fourth quarter of 2022, retail sales dipped 0.2% to A$96.877 billion. Sales were up 1.8% in year in Q4.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar was stood at 0.6896 against greenback on Monday, down by 0.33% from previous trading day closure at 0.6919 after trading in the range of 0.6895-0.6950.

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