The Australian sharemarket traded lower on Wednesday, tracking overnight weakness on Wall Street as banks came under pressure and technology stocks tumbled following a regulatory investigation into WiseTech Global.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 16.2 points, or 0.2%, to 9,053.8, with five of the 11 sectors trading in negative territory.
Information technology led the declines, with WiseTech Global falling 8.7% after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) requested documents and data from the company as part of an investigation into an alleged contravention of competition law.
Technology stocks were broadly weaker, with TechnologyOne falling 0.8%, NEXTDC declining 5.6% and Life360 losing 6.9%.
Australian real estate investment trusts also came under pressure. Goodman Group fell 4.1%, Charter Hall declined 1.6%, Scentre Group shed 0.8%, and Lendlease dropped 1.4%.
Stockland bucked the broader trend, surging 12.4% to lead gains on the index after reporting a 20.2% increase in full-year net profit to $994 million. Net funds from operations rose 10.4% to $892 million.
Financial stocks also traded lower, with Commonwealth Bank falling 1.2%, National Australia Bank declining 0.7%, ANZ slipping 0.2% and Westpac losing 0.6%.
The Health Care sector provided some support, with CSL rallying 5.5%, Sonic Healthcare gaining 2.4% and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare adding 1.2%.
Among individual movers, diagnostic imaging services provider Healius fell 5.6% after reporting a statutory net loss after tax of $415.6 million for the year ended June 30, a 174.9% decline from a year earlier.
Whitehaven Coal declined 2.7% after full-year net profit fell 41% to $385 million from $649 million a year earlier. The miner declared a fully franked final dividend of 6 cents per share.
Evolution Mining finished 0.2% higher after reporting statutory net profit after tax of $1.47 billion for the year ended June 30, up 59% year-on-year.
On the bond markets, 10-year and two-year rates were down 0.4% and 1.4%, respectively, at 5.032% and 4.598%.
