Tuesday's ASX losses aside, Nikko Asset Management's chief global strategist John Vail said he expects Australian equities to perform very well this year due to strong global growth, reasonable equity valuations, decent earnings growth and continued low global interest rates.

However, protectionist actions by the US will need to be watched very carefully, he said.

"Neither Trump nor Chinese officials wish to cause a crisis, and will attempt to avoid such as they have done so far, but emotions are running high and accidents could occur."

This week's Federal Reserve interest rate meeting is also on the radar for investors and given that markets are expecting a hike "failure to raise interest rates would be significantly more disruptive than a hike at this juncture," said strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman.

Tech-inspired losses on Wall Street and a drop in iron ore prices overnight set the stage for a difficult day in Australia.

Miners were the worst performers by a wide margin, with the sector taking 14 points off the index by the close. BHP accounted for 6 of those points, with the diversified giant losing 1.9 per cent to $28.67 during the session.

Rio Tinto declined 1.8 per cent to $75.23 while South32 fell 2.9 per cent to $3.31.

TPG Telecom couldn't hold on to early earnings-inspired gains and ended the day down 4.6 per cent at $5.76 a share.

Banks were recovering a bit, however, following a week of notable losses in tandem with royal commission hearings into the financial sector.

Commonwealth Bank shares climbed 0.4 per cent to $75.19, Westpac rose 0.4 per cent to $29.63, ANZ moved up 0.1 per cent to $28.05. NAB shares ended the day down 0.2 per cent at $29.28.