(RTTNews) - Mixed opens are forecast Wednesday for the New Zealand and Australia sharemarkets. Traders got a modestly negative lead from Wall Street, a day ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates and economic outlook.

New Zealand's market moved modestly lower on Tuesday. The benchmark NZX-50 index declined 24.7 points or 0.8 percent to close at 3,158.9.

Turnover volume was reported by the NZ Stock Exchange at 40.2 million shares valued at NZ$78.5 million.

There were 25 stocks closing higher, 51 were lower and 33 were unchanged.

Among the most actively traded stocks, Auckland International Airport was down NZ$0.05, AMP NZ Office Trust was unchanged, Fletcher Building was down one penny, Goodman Property Trust was unchanged, Kiwi Income Property Trust was unchanged, Michael Hill International was down .02, Ryman Healthcare was up two cents, SkyCity Entertainment was down .03, Sky Network TV was down a nickel and Telecom Corp of NZ was down three cents.

For the Australia-NZ dual-listed stocks, Telstra was down .02, Australia and NZ Bank was down a penny, AMP was unchanged and Pan Pac was flat.

In Australia, the sharemarket moved marginally higher in a low-volume trading session, with a move by the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise interest rates a quarter-point having little apparent effect on trading.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 8.9 points or 0.2 percent at 4,531.5 while the broader All ordinaries index was down 6.3 points or 0.1 percent at 4,540.0.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 566 to 444 with 330 unchanged.

The financial sector was mixed, with National Australia Bank down A$0.51, Westpac was down .16, Australia and NZ Bank was down a penny and Commonwealth Bank of Australia was up .37.

Investment bank Macquarie Group was down .48.

Among the insurers, QBE was down .86 or nearly 4 percent on negative guidance and AMP was unchanged.

In the mining sector, world leader BHP Billiton was up .03, rival Rio Tinto was up .02, Fortescue Metals was unchanged and OZ Minerals was down two cents.

Rising gold prices helped the gold miners, with Newcrest Mining up $1.26 or nearly 4 percent, Lihir Gold was up .13 and Sino Gold was up .15.

Shares of Macmahon and Leighton rose after the companies announced the extension of a joint venture deal on large infrastructure projects. Macmahon was up 4.5 cents while Leighton was up .50.

In overseas trading, U.S. markets were mixed approaching Tuesday's close. With about 20 minutes of trading left in the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 21.09 points or 0.22 percent at 9,768.35, the Nasdaq Composite index was up 5.25 points or 0.26 percent at 2,054.61 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index was ahead by 2.39 points or 0.23 percent at 1,045.27.

In other Asia/Pacific region trading on Tuesday, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed down 380.13 points or 1.76 percent at 21,240.06.

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