Note commentary in text below:(Updates to market close) SYDNEY,...

Note commentary in text below:
(Updates to market close)
SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Tuesday,dragged by losses for Woodside Petroleum after a broker downgrade, shopping mall owner Westfield on turning ex-dividend and AWB on worries it may lose its monopoly
wheat exporter status.
The Australian benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index <.AXJO> shed 10.2 points, or 0.21 percent, to 4,905.4, based on the latest Reuters data, after rising 0.65 percent on Monday.
Investors are waiting for the profit reporting season to provide clues to a market which has raced to successive record highs since the start of the year.
"Profits from resources and financials will be fine," said Mark Daniels, director equities with Aberdeen Asset Management.
"There are cost pressures which Rio Tinto mentioned, but most people are aware of it," he added.
Analysts expect the benchmark index's first-half earnings per share to rise by about 15-18 percent, with about half of those gains coming from the mining and energy sectors.
Daniels said the world's two biggest miners, BHP Billiton and Rio , had enjoyed a strong run since the start of the year -- both struck record highs on Jan. 30 -- and some consolidation was not surprising. The two stocks fell on Tuesday.
The Australian index logged its first weekly decline in eight weeks last Friday, but is still up about 3 percent so far this year, adding to a near 18 percent rise last year.
New Zealand shares were lower, the benchmark NZX-50 Index <.NZ50> down 6.16 points, or 0.18 percent, at 3,372.46. The top stock, Telecom Corp. of New Zealand Ltd. shed 0.7 percent to NZ$5.71.

STOCKS TO WATCH
* AWB Ltd. , the nation's monopoly wheat exporter, tumbled 9.7 percent to A$4.19 on worries the on-going probeinto its kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq could ultimately result in its monopoly being removed. The stock has lost almost a third of its value since the investigations began in mid-January. A JP Morgan report released last Friday forecast the stock to fall to A$2.14 in the worst case scenario.
*****************************
* Small-cap biotechnology company, Biota Holdings Ltd.
, jumped 11 percent to A$1.61 on speculation it was scouting for acquisitions in the United States. A Biota spokesman told Reuters the company does not comment on market speculation. Trade volume was near average levels at 2.8 million shares.
********************************
* Woodside Petroleum Ltd. , the nation's top
independent oil and gas producer, fell 2.8 percent to A$42.75
after Citigroup cut the stock rating to "hold" from "buy".
* Orica Ltd. , the world's top commercial explosives
maker, climbed 1.7 percent to A$22.06. It plans to raise between
A$400 million-A$500 million ($300-$370 million) through a hybrid
issue to partly fund its previously announced part acquisition of
Dyno Nobel. For details: [ID:nSYD18983].
* Westfield Group Ltd., the world's top shopping mall owner
by market value, dropped 58 cents, or 3.3 percent, to A$17.07
after going ex-dividend its first-half payout of 55.5 cents a
share.
($1=A$1.35)
((Reporting by Denny Thomas, editing by James Thornhill;
[email protected]; Reuters Messaging:
[email protected]; +61 2 9373 1812))