Shares slip as oil stocks tumble; gold stocks jump; RBA leaves interest rates on hold at 3.6pc

A sell-off in energy stocks managed to offset sharp gains by gold miners, dragging the Australian sharemarket lower on Tuesday after the oil price extended its decline.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.1 per cent or by 14 points to 8848.8 at the closing bell, with nine out of the 11 sectors in the red. That’s after a lacklustre session on Wall Street overnight as the threat of a government shutdown looms and the Trump administration looks to use the disruption to sack thousands of employees to drive down costs.

A decline in the energy sector weighed on the bourse, with oil giants Woodside Energy and Santos losing 1.7 per cent to $23.03 and 2.5 per cent to $23.03, respectively. That’s after Brent fell for a second session below $68 a barrel as the market weighs a looming glut and the possibility for an end to hostilities in Gaza, which could siphon some of the war premium out of prices.

Other oil stocks also declined with Karoon Energy down 1.7 per cent to $1.65 and Beach Energy dropped 3.4 per cent to $1.14.

A rally in the mining stocks had earlier pushed the ASX higher after gold reset another record. Mining stocks were among the best performers on the ASX 200 on Tuesday, tracking the higher gold price. The precious metal climbed as much as 2 per cent to an all-time high of $US3833.59 an ounce, boosted by a weaker US dollar as investors weighed the potential US government shutdown.

Ramelius Resources added 2.7 per cent to $3.88, Bellevue Gold rose 3.2 per cent to $1.145 and Capricorn Metals added 2.9 per cent to $13.23 .

The ASX’s largest gold miner, Newmont, was an outlier in the sector after chief executive Tom Palmer resigned with chief operating officer Natascha Viljoen to replace him. Viljoen was previously CEO of Anglo American’s platinum business. The shares dropped 2.3 per cent to $129.22.

The mining giants were in the green, with index heavyweight BHP up 1.5 per cent to $42.53.

The rest of the market was largely subdued as the RBA left the cash rate unchanged as widely expected. Money market traders also scaled back bets that another rate cut would be delivered by November.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, investors were focused on billionaire Kerry Stokes who says he will step down as chairman of Seven West Media group if its proposed merger with Southern Cross Media is successful.

The Tuesday merger announcement sent the shares of both companies up 7.1 per cent to 15¢ and 6.6 per cent to 89¢.

Restaurant Brands NZ surged 59.3 per cent ro $4.30 after it received a takeover offer from its majority shareholder, Mexican company Finaccess Restauración for $NZ5.05 ($4.44) apiece.

IDP Education was the best performing stock on the ASX 200, surging 16.1 per cent to $6.57. The company has not released any announcements.

And trading in Star Entertainment Group has resumed, with the shares climbing 1.1 per cent to 9¢ after the casino giant said it had finalised discussions with lenders.