AU Evening Wrap: Australia Shares Fall 1.3% as Property, Tech Tumble

Australia's $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ closed 1.3% lower at 7782.5 as property and tech stocks tumbled amid renewed uncertainty about the likely timing of global central bank interest-rate cuts. The benchmark index opened lower following a weak lead by U.S. equities and kept falling through the session for its heaviest loss in more than three weeks.

$WiseTech Global Ltd (WTC.AU)$ and $Xero Ltd (XRO.AU)$, the ASX's two largest tech companies by market capitalization, dropped 5.0% and 5.7%, respectively.

Shares of every ASX 200 property trust finished lower, with $Vicinity Centres (VCX.AU)$, $Arena REIT (ARF.AU)$ and $GPT Group (GPT.AU)$ losing between 4.8% and 4.9%.

Banks $Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AU)$, $National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.AU)$, $ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ANZ.AU)$ and $CommBank (CBA.AU)$--all of which can typically expand margins when interest rates are falling--shed between 1.1% and 1.9%.