Feb 11 (Reuters) - Australian shares egded down on Thursday, as a slump in technology stocks following overnight losses in their Wall Street peers outweighed gains in Newcrest Mining
and Telstra on upbeat half-year reports.
The S&P/ASX 200 index slipped 0.09% to 6,850.60 by 0103 GMT. The benchmark closed 0.5% higher on Wednesday.
Major indexes on Wall Street slipped from record levels in the last trading session, with U.S. tech giants Tesla , Amazon.com , Microsoft and Apple weighing the most on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes.
The Australian tech sector followed suit, losing as much as 2.1%. The subindex was set for its worst day since Feb. 1.
WiseTech Global and Afterpay Ltd shed more than 2% each.
The heavyweight financial sector slipped 0.9% with three of the 'Big Four' banks trading in red.
Wealth manager AMP Ltd fell as much as 10.7% to mark its biggest intraday percentage drop since July 31, after U.S.-based Ares Management withdrew its $4.5 billion buyout offer. AMP also posted a 32% fall in annual profit.
Healthcare stocks also fell about 0.7%, with Nanosonics dropping over 7.5% and Healius losing more than 2%.
The gold index rose 3.8% to its highest since Jan. 28, after Newcrest Mining , the country's largest listed gold miner, posted a 98% rise in half-yearly underlying profit.
Shares of Newcrest were set for their best session in eight months and were among top gainers on the ASX 200.
Telstra Corp , the largest telecom company in Australia, strengthened 3.5% after the firm held its interim dividend at 8 cents per share and special dividend of 3 cents per share.
The stock boosted the telecoms index over 1% to its highest since August 2017.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index slipped 0.5% to 12,770.63.
Top losers were Meridian Energy and Vista Group , both falling about 2.5%.