Australia shares fall as tech weighs, Melbourne extends lockdown

Australian shares fell by nearly a percent on Monday, following the previous session’s sell-off, after technology shares fell tracking their Wall Street peers on Friday and as Melbourne extended a coronavirus-led lockdown till late September.

The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.9% to 5,869.9 points by 0030 GMT on Monday, after it lost 3.1% in the previous session.

Technology stocks, the biggest percentage losers, fell 2.4% to hit their lowest level in more than three weeks.

Their losses follow the tech-heavy Nasdaq index’s 1.3% fall on Friday after investors dumped heavyweight technology stocks due to concerns about high valuations.