Australian shares end lower, dragged by banks and energy stocks

Published on 09/08/2025 at 02:53 am EDT

• S&P/ASX 200 falls 0.24%
• Financials drop 0.6%, energy stocks down 1.6%
• Coles flags remediation costs; shares fall 0.8%
• NZ50 index closes up 0.4%

(Reuters) - Australian shares ended lower on Monday as investors moved out of pricey bank stocks on concerns that lower interest rates could hurt their margins and impact earnings, while energy stocks slid over concerns of an oil supply glut.
The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.2% lower at 8,849.60 points. The benchmark added 0.5% on Friday, but lost over 1% last week.
Financials fell 0.6% as investors worried whether banks' future earnings will be able to justify their stretched trading premiums. The Australian central bank is expected to cut rates by a quarter point in November. Lower interest rates generally eat into banks' margins.
Three of Australia's top four banks are trading at a premium to the rest of the benchmark, with top lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia among the priciest banks among developed economies, in terms of their price-to-earnings ratios.
"Investors have been pivoting out of the overvalued sectors like banks since reporting season as the earnings growth prospect for such stocks has eased heading into FY26 amid the outlook for further rate cuts," said Grady Wulff, a senior market analyst with Bell Direct.
National Australia Bank, the country's largest business lender, closed down 0.8%, while No. 4 bank ANZ lost 1%.
The local energy sub-index shed 1.6% to hit its lowest close since mid-July after a surprise announcement by OPEC + about raising oil production from October led to concerns of a supply glut.
Shares of Woodside Energy ended 2.7% lower.
Meanwhile, grocers Woolworths and Coles flagged costs to the tune of A$780 million ($512.38 million) after a federal court found the supermarket chains underpaid their staff for years.
Coles shares finished 0.8% lower, while Woolworths shares ended 0.5% higher, though they fell as much as 0.6% earlier in the day.
In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index closed 0.4% higher at 13,281.14 points. ($1 = 1.5223 Australian dollars)
( Reporting by Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala )

Sumber : Reuters