march 7 reuters  australian shares closed at a oneweek low on monday as a global equity selloff due to the russiaukraine crisis dragged financials and technology stocks and outweighed sharp gains in the energy and mining sectors the spasx 200 index axjo ended 1 lower at 703860 to mark a second straight session of loss fears of a us and european ban on russian oil triggered a sharp rise in crude prices to their highest since 2008 raising worries of higher global inflation and a complicated policy landscape for central banks financials axfj slumped 16 in their fourth straight day of losses touching their lowest level since jan 27 european and em emerging markets banks are facing elevated economic risk and that will weigh on banks globally said mathan somasundaram ceo of deep data analytics the countrys three largest lenders dropped between 12 and 2 while commonwealth bank of australia cbaax closed flat the technology subindex axij slipped 47 with asxlisted shares of block inc leading the declines with a 103 plunge the sharp losses more than countered gains stemming from firmer commodity prices the australian metals and mining subindex axmm up by 14 fortescue metals group fmgax and bhp group bhpax added 18 and 09 respectively major oil and gas explorers woodside petroleum wplax and santos stoax surged 95 and 53 respectively firm bullion prices lifted gold stocks axgd by 54 with northern star resources nstax and newcrest mining ncmax gaining 61 and 52 power producer agl energy fell 18 after it rejected a sweetened a825 apiece takeover bid from a brookfieldled consortium read more rio tinto rioax fell slightly after it was fined by australian authorities for breaching the countrys continuous disclosure laws in new zealand the benchmark spnzx 50 index nz50 fell 19 to 1191327 reporting by upasana singh in bengaluru editing by uttareshv