News: ALD Australia shares fall amid broad-based losses, mixed Wall St finish

April 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Thursday, as losses across the board and a mixed finish on Wall Street overnight weighed on the benchmark index.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) fell 0.33% to 7,000.2 in early trade, after having closed above 7,000-mark on Wednesday for the first time since late-February last year.

Wall Street's main indexes closed mixed overnight, with the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC and S&P 500 .SPX seeing a fall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose on bumper bank earnings.

In other markets, Nikkei futures NKc1 were up 0.32% and S&P 500 E-minis futures EScv1 added 0.18%.

Australian tech shares .AXIJ fell 1.49%, led by losses in Nearmap Ltd (NEA) , down 3.1%, and Xero Ltd (XRO) that shed 2.83%.

The gold index .AXGD declined 1.54%, led lower by Regis Resources Ltd (RRL) , down 13.26%. Evolution Mining Ltd (EVN) followed it with losses of 4.91%.

Miners .AXMM rose 1.27% to limit losses on the benchmark. This was despite a fall in iron ore and gold prices.

Sandfire Resources Ltd (SFR) jumped 4.2% to lead the gains on the sub-index, followed by Mineral Resources Ltd (MIN) , up 3.43​%.

The energy sub-index .AXEJ rose 1% as oil prices surged almost 5% on Wednesday on hopes of a return in demand.

The rally was led by Ampol Ltd (ALD) , up 3.52%, and Beach Energy Ltd (BPT) that climbed 2.69​%.

Ampol on Thursday also reported that it expected to see recovery in Australian fuel demand as the year progresses.

Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal (WHC) fell as much as 14.4% after it lowered its sales forecast for the year due to issues at its Narrabri underground mine.

Financial stocks .AXFJ fell 0.41%. Zip Co Ltd (Z1P) fell 2.29% and Credit Corp Group Ltd (CCP) slid 1.71%.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) fell as much as 0.88%, with Contact Energy (CEN) losing the most, followed by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation (FPH) . Both lost as much as 5% and 2.5%, respectively.