Australian shares ended lower on Wednesday, the first trading day of the new financial year, as banks dragged on softer house price data, though gains in miners, led ‌by South32, ⁠limited losses. The ⁠S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.6% lower at 8,722.90. The benchmark had ended down 0.5% on Tuesday. The Australian bourse began the new quarter on a softer note after gaining 3.5% in April-June, lagging global peers as uncertainty over the central bank's rate path and Middle East-linked inflation risks clouded the outlook. "The softer start to FY27 is not a major shock, but it does show investors ⁠are entering ‌the new financial year with less appetite and less confidence - to chase risk at elevated levels of uncertainty," said Hebe Chen, a ⁠market analyst at Vantage Markets. Financials fell 1.7%, posting their biggest single-day drop in nearly two months, with all the "Big Four" banks trading in the red. Data showed that Australian home prices suffered their steepest fall in three-and-a-half years in June as a record housing boom succumbed to higher borrowing costs. "Softer house prices are only part of the story," Chen added, saying the national median house price's biggest month-on-month drop since 2022 "matters for ‌banks because housing sits at the heart of mortgage demand, household confidence and credit growth." On the other hand, miners rose 0.3%, helped by a 9.7% surge in South32 ⁠after the diversified miner said it had agreed to sell most of its aluminium assets to U.S.-based aluminium producer, Alcoa, for an implied enterprise value of up to $5.6 billion. South32 posted its largest single-day gain since 17 March, 2020 and was among the top gainers on the broader index. Gold stocks dropped 1.3%, hurt by a fall in bullion prices. Tech stocks declined 1%, while health stocks rose 0.8%. In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index ended flat at 13,610.50.