News: WGX Australian shares dip as miners, gold stocks weigh; NZ falls

• Miners and gold stocks weigh on the Australian benchmark
• Aussie tech stocks rise up to 2.1%
• a2 Milk and Synlait Milk top drags on NZ benchmark

Australian shares edged lower on Monday as a drop in commodity prices dragged the country's prominent mining and gold sectors, overriding a jump in local tech stocks on the heels of a rally in U.S. peers.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) fell 0.2% to 5,951.5 by 0105 GMT. The benchmark rose 1.5% on Friday.

Iron ore's worst weekly loss in nearly seven months and a drop in gold last week outweighed optimism on restrictions being eased in Victoria, where daily rise in new cases fell to single digits for the first time in more than three months.

"Surges in new COVID-19 cases has raised fears for the demand recovery of the cyclical commodities," analysts at ANZ Research said in a note, referring to the rise in global cases of the novel coronavirus.

The metals and mining sub-index .AXMM fell up to 0.9% and the gold sub-index .AXGD slid as much as 0.5%.

West African Resources (WAF) and Westgold Resources (WGX) , down 3.4% and 2.5%, respectively, were among the top percentage losers on both indexes.

The financial index .AXFJ lost up to 1%, pulling back from previous session's gains. All the "Big Four" banks were trading in the red, down between 0.5% and 1%.

Tech stocks .AXIJ climbed up to 2.1%, tracking peers in the United States. EML Payments (EML) and Nearmap (NEA) were the top gainers on the index.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) fell 0.4% to 11,744.61 by 0105 GMT and was on track for its biggest intraday percentage loss since Aug. 12.

Shares of dairy producers a2 Milk (ATM) and Synlait Milk (SML) on fears that lower demand from Chinese resellers in Australia would hurt near term earnings.