Australian Shares Slide 0.70% to 8,778 as Miners and Energy Stocks Track Overnight Wall Street Losses

SYDNEY — Australian shares closed lower Friday, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 62.2 points, or 0.70%, to 8,778.5, as weakness in mining and energy stocks weighed on the benchmark index following a rough overnight session on Wall Street.

The decline extended a softer patch for the local market after Thursday's session, when the index gave back early gains to finish only marginally lower at 8,840.7 points. Friday's open had already been expected to be soft, with futures pricing in a roughly 26-point, or 0.3%, decline heading into the session after major U.S. indexes fell sharply overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.3%, the S&P 500 fell 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.5% as chip stocks led losses on Wall Street, souring sentiment heading into the Australian trading day.

Gold miners were among the hardest hit sectors on the local bourse. Overnight, gold futures fell 1.8% to $3,979 an ounce, driven by growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could deliver a further interest rate increase, which tends to reduce demand for the precious metal by raising the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets. That pullback in gold prices weighed heavily on ASX-listed gold miners, including Evolution Mining and Newmont Corporation, both of which were tipped for a difficult finish to the trading week.

Energy stocks similarly struggled after oil prices retreated overnight. According to Bloomberg data, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.7% to $79.05 a barrel, pressuring shares of Santos and Woodside Energy Group as investors weighed the impact of softer crude prices on the sector's near-term earnings outlook.

Not every corner of the market moved lower. Retail giant Harvey Norman Holdings drew a bullish note from Bell Potter, which retained its buy rating on the stock while trimming its price target to $6.00, implying potential upside of roughly 26% from current levels. The broker also pointed to an expected dividend yield above 6% for the 2027 financial year, noting that despite a more challenging retail environment expected in the first half of that year, Harvey Norman's shares continued to trade at what the broker considered an attractive forward earnings multiple of around 13 times, even as analysts anticipated a recovery weighted toward the second half of the coming financial year.

Elsewhere in company-specific news, aluminum producer Alcoa cut its 2026 alumina production guidance, lowering its forecast to a range of 9.5 million to 9.6 million tonnes, down 0.2 million to 0.3 million tonnes from prior guidance, while trimming its shipment forecast to a range of 11.5 million to 11.6 million tonnes. The company's aluminium production guidance was left unchanged. The revised outlook, announced after the U.S. market close, sent Alcoa shares down 2.5% in after-hours trading, a move that rippled into sentiment around Australian-listed alumina and aluminium producers given the close ties between the two markets.

REA Group also made headlines Friday after confirming a deal to sell its Housing.com business in India to Aurum PropTech. Under the terms of the agreement, REA Group's Indian unit, REA India, will receive Aurum shares valued at approximately $68 million as consideration for the sale, rather than a cash payment. The transaction will lift REA India's equity stake in Aurum to 24.9% from 5.5% upon completion, with that stake to be accounted for by REA Group as a financial asset going forward. The company said it expects to book an overall loss on the divestment of approximately $110 million, reflecting a goodwill impairment and associated transaction costs. The sale follows a broader strategic review of REA Group's Indian operations, which had already seen the company sell its PropTiger business to Aurum and close its Housing Edge unit earlier in the current financial year.

Corporate Travel Management also featured in Friday's trading updates, though not for a positive reason. The company announced that Shelley Sorrenson will step down as Company Secretary and Group Chief Legal Officer effective August 14, with the company saying it would update the market once a replacement had been appointed. Corporate Travel Management's shares have remained suspended from trading on the ASX since August 22 last year, when the company first requested a trading halt before moving into a voluntary suspension days later while it investigated potential issues requiring the rectification and restatement of prior financial statements.

In broader merger and acquisition news, Coles confirmed it would not proceed with a potential acquisition of veterinary care business Greencross, walking away from a deal that had been the subject of market speculation since news of a potential transaction first emerged on July 1. Private equity firm TPG Capital originally acquired Greencross in 2019 for approximately $675 million, and reports had suggested the business could command a price closer to $4 billion in a potential sale this time around, a substantial sum relative to Coles' roughly $30 billion market capitalization that likely would have required the supermarket giant to take on additional debt or pursue a capital raising to fund the purchase. News of the potential deal had already triggered a negative reaction in both Coles and rival Woolworths shares earlier in the month.

Friday's session capped a mixed week for Australian equities, with the benchmark index oscillating within a relatively narrow band as investors weighed a combination of global interest rate expectations, commodity price swings and company-specific developments across the mining, retail and travel sectors. With gold and oil prices both under pressure and Wall Street sentiment souring heading into the weekend, traders said the local market would likely remain sensitive to further shifts in U.S. Federal Reserve rate expectations and any additional developments affecting commodity prices in the sessions ahead.