Australian Shares Dip as Tech Stocks Drag

2026-02-04 00:35 By Joshua Ferrer 1 min. read

The S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% to around 8,840 in early Wednesday deals, reversing gains from the previous session and tracking a tech-led sell-off in Wall Street overnight.

Markets also came under pressure after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised rates in its February meeting amid faster-than-expected economic growth and sticky inflation outlook.

With the central bank entering a rate-hiking cycle, investors ramped bets of a May rate increase to 80% and now see about 40 bps of additional tightening priced in for the rest of the year.

Local technology stocks led the losses, plunging over 7% to hit its lowest level since early February 2024 after their US peers declined on worries of AI disruption.

Accounting software maker Xero sank 14% to a more than two-year low, while logistics software provider Wisetech Global dropped 7% to its lowest since January 2023.

Rate-sensitive sectors such as banks and real estate also fell, while gains in commodity-linked stocks helped limit losses.



News Stream
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