(Updates to close)
Jan 6 (Reuters) – Shares in Australia fell sharply on Wednesday, with investors struggling to find a strong base ahead of U.S. Senate election results amid concerns that a coronavirus browser in Sydney could being spread to regional areas also reduces risk appetite.
The S&P / ASX 200 index closed 1.1% lower at 6,607.1 points, extending losses to a second straight session.
Risk appetite has bounced back as investors tracked the results of Georgia’s election elections, with U.S. futures declining and global stock prices declining.
If Democratic opponents win, it would be easier for U.S. President Joe Biden to get past major fiscal spending, which is generally seen as a positive.
“Australian markets are appalled by the fall in U.S. index times and growing expectations of U.S. fiscal stimulus,” said Jeffrey Halley, OANDA’s senior market analyst for Asia Pacific.
There was a big loss on the Australian benchmark, with almost every region trading in the red.
Technical stocks lose the most to be at their lowest level in more than three weeks, with the Buy-now-pay-giant giant declining nearly 6% thereafter.
U.S. domestic healthcare stocks that relied on exports traded lower ahead of the election result, while the weaker U.S. dollar weighed on drug dealer CSL Ltd.
Investor jitters were also involved in a recent uprising in the country’s two largest cities, when officials issued a new warning in Melbourne after discovering that a man was later present at an international cricket match.
Investigators were cautious, even though Australian health authorities said they would give advance plans of COVID-19 vaccines by two weeks to early March.
“We saw as soon as this could explode, so there are concerns that this could be another Victorian situation,” said James Tao, market analyst at CommSec.
Going down the trend, energy companies gained as much as 3.3%, after a 5% climb in crude prices overnight on news that Saudi Arabia will make voluntary cuts to its oil production.
In New Zealand, the S&P / NZX 50 index closed 0.3% weaker, with milk giant A2 Milk peeling the bulk. (Reporting by Shruti Sonal in Bengaluru; Additional report by Pranav AK, Edited by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)