Updates to market close

By Nikita Maria Jino

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Australian shares finished at a three-week closing low on Thursday after a sharp decline in unemployment pushed investors to scale back their February interest rate cut bets, pressuring risk-prone equities.

The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO ended 0.3% lower at 8,330.3 points, the lowest close since Nov. 21. This was the benchmark's third consecutive session of losses.

Unemployment in the country declined sharply to an eight-month low in November, signalling to the Reserve Bank of Australia $(RBA)$ that the labour market was more resilient than expected.

Traders, who had been betting on a rate cut in February after a weak economic growth print last week and dovish comments by the central bank on Tuesday, dialled back the odds to 50% from 68% after the jobs report.0#AUDIRPR

Analysts now widely expect the first cut to be in May.

Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, said the benchmark's fall today came as "markets reassessed the likelihood of an RBA rate cut in February following a solid November jobs report".

Adelaide Timbrell, a senior economist at ANZ, said, "Softer economic data from the recent national accounts $(GDP)$ release raised the risk of a February cut, but this labour market result offsets that risk somewhat."

Banks .AXFJ were little changed, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX, the country's largest lender, ending flat.

Miners .AXMM slipped marginally, with sector major BHP BHP.AX shedding 0.5%.

Technology stocks .AXIJ bucked the trend and tracked their Wall Street peers higher to gain 0.4%, snapping a four-day decline. .N

Logistics software maker WiseTech Global WTC.AX climbed 0.7%, while accounting software maker Xero XRO.AX jumped 1.4%.

Discretionary retailers .AXDJ and real estate stocks .AXRE were pressured by a protracted rate cut trajectory.

Domino's Pizza Enterprises lost 3.9% and property manager Mirvac Group MGR.AX declined 2.9%.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 closed 0.5% lower at 12,692.72 points.

(Reporting by Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

((Nikita.Jino@thomsonreuters.com;))

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