Australian markets end lower

Australian markets ended lower, dragged down by energy, technology and consumer stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.57 percent to 8,094.70 as trade balance figures for January lagged forecasts. The broader All Ordinaries index closed down 0.44 percent at 8,326.40.

Australia's trade surplus increased in January as exports rose amid a fall in imports, official data showed on Thursday.

The trade surplus rose to A$5.62 billion in January from A$4.92 billion in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

In the same period last year, the trade balance posted a surplus of A$9.39 billion.

Exports posted a monthly growth of 1.3 percent driven by non-monetary gold. At the same time, imports dropped 0.3 percent due to a 7.7 percent decrease in inflows of capital goods.

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