Australia, N.Z. Stocks: BHP, James Hardie, Mirvac, Rio Tinto

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 2.8 percent to 3,897 at the 4:10 p.m. close of trading in Sydney. The gauge, which just completed its second consecutive quarterly decline, has lost 18 percent this year.

New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index declined 0.8 percent to 3,315.74 at the 5 p.m. close in Wellington. The gauge just completed its first quarterly decline in five, and has risen 0.2 percent this year.

The following were among the most active shares in the market today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Australia:

Mining stocks: A measure of primary metals traded in London fell 3.4 percent on Sept. 30, and copper futures slumped as much as 4.9 percent today.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) , the world’s No. 1 mining company, fell 2.5 percent to A$34.15. Rio Tinto Group (RIO AU), the world’s second-largest mining company by sales, declined 4.1 percent to A$59.30, the lowest in two years.

Oil stocks: Crude oil for November delivery fell 3.5 percent in New York on Sept. 30, and as much as 1.6 percent today.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) , Australia’s second- biggest oil and gas producer, sank 2.7 percent to A$31.62. Santos Ltd. (STO) , Australia’s third-largest oil and gas producer, lost 2.6 percent to A$11.08.

James Hardie Industries SE (JHX) sank 3.5 percent to A$5.55. The building-materials supplier that gets almost 70 percent of sales from the U.S. dropped after U.S. consumer spending slowed as incomes unexpectedly dropped.

Brambles Ltd. (BXB) , which gets almost half its revenue from the Americas, retreated 2.8 percent to A$6.29.

Mirvac Group (MGR) dropped 0.9 percent to A$1.14. The property and development group said it entered into a binding agreement to sell a 50 percent stake in the Hoxton Distribution Park for A$97.4 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John McCluskey at j.mccluskey@bloomberg.net.