The Australian sharemarket struggled to find direction on Tuesday, with technology, energy, and data centre stocks taking a hit as fears over China’s AI advancements weighed on investor sentiment.
The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 9.8 points or 0.1% to 8,399.1, as five of 11 sectors registered declines.
The market unease stemmed from overnight losses on Wall Street, as concerns were sparked by DeepSeek, a Chinese start-up that has reportedly developed a low-cost AI model capable of rivalling those of U.S. tech giants.
DeepSeek’s advancements have raised questions about the need for energy-intensive data centres, as its AI model is said to require far less power.
The news sent real estate and technology sectors lower, as Goodman Group slid 8.2%, Megaport shed 4.3% and data centre operator NextDC tumbled 7.2%.
Major energy companies followed suit, with Origin Energy down 3.4% and AGL Energy falling 2.3%.
Among major miners, Rio Tinto slipped 0.6%, BHP added 0.4%, while Fortescue Metals gained 0.4% after announcing plans to acquire fellow ASX mining stock Red Hawk Mining.
Sigma Healthcare bucked the trend, surging 12.2% after merger partner Chemist Warehouse reported record sales for the six months ending December.
Nuix plunged 20.2% after the software company announced a drop in half-year earnings, citing project delays and increasingly complex contracts.
Among data releases, NAB's monthly business survey showed a slight increase in business conditions in December.
On the bond markets, 10-year and 2-year rates were up 0.6% and 0.5% to 4.427% and 3.875%, respectively.
