Investors braced for a week littered with 13 central bank meetings that are certain to see borrowing costs rise across the globe and some risk of a super-sized hike in the US.
The Federal Reserve meets on Wednesday while the Bank of England (BoE) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) will announce their monetary policy decisions on Thursday. The Bank of Japan is also meeting on Thursday.
Investors have priced in at least another 75 basis point increase in rates at the end of a 2-day Federal Open Market Committee's meeting on Wednesday, meanwhile markets split on whether the Bank of England will go by 50 or 75 basis points.
At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 19.16 points, or 0.28%, to 6,719.92. The broader All Ordinaries index fell 26.56 points, or 0.38%, to 6,948.63.
Total 9 of 11 sectors were lower along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Utilities sector was the worst performer, falling 1.4%, followed by information technology (down 1.25%) and energy (down 1.14%) sectors. A-REIT was the best performing sector, gaining 0.92%
The top performing stocks in this index were LAKE RESOURCES and PILBARA MINERAL, up 12.4% and 3.5% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were AYONA MINING and MAGELLAN FINANCIAL GROUP, down 8.6% and 5.8% respectively.
Energy stocks were lower. Paladin Energy and Whitehaven Coal were the biggest drags on the index, shedding 4.1% and 3.7%, respectively.
Tech stocks declined on tracking Friday's drop at tech-heavy peer Nasdaq index. Brainchip fell 4.9% and Block was down 4.5%.
Lake Resources was up 12.4% after the lithium miner said work was proceeding at its Kachi project in Argentina, following a dispute with partner Lilac Solutions.
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