Australian shares slipped 39 points, or 0.4%, to 9,170 in early trade on Thursday, extending the previous session’s decline. The move tracked softer U.S. equity futures, even after Wall Street finished mostly higher overnight on the back of slightly cooler July U.S. CPI data and strong earnings from chipmakers.
The local market hit its lowest level in a week, with lingering domestic inflation worries keeping investors cautious. Although inflation eased modestly in June, concerns remain elevated after the Reserve Bank left the cash rate unchanged at 4.35% earlier this week but signalled it could tighten further following three increases so far this year.
Sector performance was mixed: communications, consumer durables, retail, and transport stocks pressured the market, while industrial services and technology names provided some offsetting support. Commonwealth Bank fell more than 2%, bucking the trend of gains across the other three major banks. Among the heavier decliners, Insurance Australia Group slumped 5.5%, while Transurban dropped 2.7%, Telstra 2.6%, and Scentre 2.3%.
