jan 10 reuters  australian shares fell on monday as technology stocks tracked a weak finish on wall street in the previous session with surging cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus denting sentiment further the benchmark asx 200 index axjo declined 04 to 74213 points by 2313 gmt fears of a soonerthanexpected interest rate hike by the us federal reserve dragged wall street on friday and the techheavy nasdaq index dropped nearly 1 local technology stocks mirrored the indexs move on monday the tech subindex axij shed 18 to hit its lowest level since june last year dragged by zip co ltd z1pax and eml payments ltd emlax losing about 34 and 16 respectively meanwhile authorities in the country reinstated some restrictions to battle a record spike in covid19 infections with an official modelling indicating that the omicron outbreak in new south wales could peak by januaryend read more among individual shares and sectors the big four banks fell between 03 and 09 while the broader financial subindex axfj fell 07 gold stocks axgd followed suit dropping 03 with gold miner northern star resources ltd nstax declining 06 the energy subindex axej however shrugged off weaker oil prices to add 07 whitehaven coal ltd whcax declined 13 to be one of the biggest pct losers on the subindex miners axmm also rose 15 on stronger iron ore and metal prices with global iron ore miners rio tinto rioax and bhp group bhpax up 28 and 19 in new zealand the benchmark spnzx 50 index nz50 fell 06 to 128995 points media firm sky network television ltd sktnz fell 28 to a near fourweek low and headed for its fourth straight day of losses elsewhere japans nikkei n225 was down 003 while the sp 500 eminis futures slipped 03 reporting by yamini c s editing by uttareshv