Australia Stocks loses steam on weak China economic data

Headline indices of the Australian financial market declined o Friday, 14 December 2018, as investors moved to secure gains following the lackluster cues from Wall Street overnight amid skepticism about a U.S.-China trade deal. Selloff pressure was also fueled by weaker than expected economic data from China, Australia's largest trading partner. Most of ASX sectors were lower, with shares in materials, energy, and financials issues were notable losers. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index dropped 52.61 points, or 0.93%, to 5,609.00 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index declined 49.95 points, or 0.87%, to 5,685.30 points.

Investors risk sentiments were muted after weaker than expected economic data from China, Australia's largest trading partner. China's industrial output and retail sales growth for the month of November missed expectations, reinforcing worries about a slowdown in the world's second largest economy amid trade tensions with the U.S. China's retail sales grew at the weakest pace since 2003, while industrial output grew at its slowest pace in nearly three years.China's fixed-asset investment up in November --China's industrial output in November grew 5.4% year-on-year, 0.5 percentage points lower than October, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. Fixed-asset investment growth was 5.9% in the first 11 months, quickening by 0.2 percentage points compared with the first 10 months.

Global sentiment remained dampened after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi flagged "persistence of uncertainties" related to protectionism, emerging markets' vulnerability and market volatility, as the bank ended its crisis-fighting bond purchase programme. .

Shares of materials and resources were weak despite higher copper and iron ore prices. Major miners BHP Group and Rio Tinto fell as much as 0.5% and 1%, respectively.Fortescue Metals was lower by more than 2%.

Financial stocks were lower, with Australia's top four lenders - Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, and National Australia Bank - were in negative territory.

Shares of energy players declined despite a nearly 3% increase in crude oil prices overnight. Woodside Petroleum was lower by 0.5%, Oil Search fell almost 1% and Santos was down 1%.

Among individual stocks, CSR shares fell more than 3% after the construction materials company said its chief executive Rob Sindel will retire in 2019 following what has been a difficult run for the company. CSR's shares will drop out of the ASX top 100 on December 24.

Drug distributor Australian Pharmaceutical Industries or API, which already owns nearly 13% of rival Sigma Healthcare, has offered to buy the entire company for about A$727 million. Shares of API gained more than 7%, while Sigma Healthcare's shares were unchanged.

Shares of CIMIC Group gained almost 2% after engineering company's announced a fresh buyback of another 10% of its shares over the next year, marking the fourth straight year it has committed to share buybacks.

CURRENCY: Australian Dollar, seen as a proxy for China-related trades, edged down against greenback on Friday. The Australian dollar was quoted at $0.7225, down from $0.7229 on Thursday.

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