News: NCM Miners drag Australian shares lower; inflation in focus

April 24 (Reuters) - Australian shares slid on Monday, dragged by mining stocks, with investors eyeing initial trends from the earnings season and a key first-quarter inflation print due later this week.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) was down as much as 0.3% to 7,307.7 points by 0020 GMT.

The first-quarter inflation print is due on Wednesday and a Reuters poll of economists projets headline inflation to be 1.3% quarter on quarter, compared with the prior quarter's 1.9%.

On Monday, miners .AXMM dropped 2.2%, with iron ore mining giant Fortescue Metals (FMG) giving up as much as 2.6% even as it posted better-than-expected iron ore shipments during the March quarter.

South32 Ltd (S32) dived as much as 10% after the diversified miner cut the output guidance for several operations hit by wet weather and other issues in the third quarter.

The gold sub-index .AXGD followed suit to retreat 1.2%, with heavyweights Newcrest Mining (NCM) and Northern Star Resources (NST) losing 1.3% each.

Energy stocks .AXEJ gave up as much as 0.8%. Sector majors Woodside Energy (WDS) and Santos (STO) slipped 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.

However, heavyweight financials .AXFJ added 0.3%, helping negate the losses on the broader bourse. All top four banks advanced between 0.4% and 1%, respectively.

Separately, Australian funeral services provider InvoCare (IVC) slipped 15% after U.S.-based private equity firm TPG Global withdrew its A$1.81 billion ($1.21 billion) buyout bid for the company.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) dipped 0.1% to 11919.18 points.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said that it would implement a 250% risk weigh for bank investments in the Business Growth Fund (BGF) down from the current 400%.