Australian shares fell on Wednesday as growing uncertainty around the U.S. presidential election and a Federal Reserve policy decision later in the day kept investors on edge.
The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) fell 0.9 percent, or 48.37 points to 5,242.10 by 0122 GMT. The index hit its lowest in nearly two months.
The Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, but has grown increasingly confident about raising rates and is widely expected to move in December.
Investors doubt it would act so close to the U.S. Nov. 8 election.
The presidential race has appeared to tighten in the past week with Democrat Hillary Clinton leading with five-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday, down only slightly since the FBI said on Friday that it was reviewing more emails in its investigation of Clinton ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
But a poll by ABC News showed Trump leading by one point and the Los Angeles Times put the Republican candidate more than two points ahead.
"People are looking to mitigate the risks around their portfolios as the clarity of the investment landscape is deteriorating as Donald Trump picks up (vote) share," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG in Melbourne.
Traders are "taking some exposure off, just in case Trump gets up, we don't know what the world's going to look like then," Weston said.
Financial and energy sectors took a beating, with both S&P ASX 200 Energy (GIC) index .AXEJ and S&P ASX 200 Financials (GIC)index .AXFJ down nearly 1.3 percent.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Westpac Banking Corp (WBC) both fell around 1 percent.
Among oil and gas companies, Woodside Petroleum Ltd (WPL) shed 1.4 percent, while Oil Search Ltd (OSH) was down 1.3 percent after oil prices fell for a fourth stragith session.
Australia's second-biggest airline operator, Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd (VAH), slumped 2.1 percent after it reported an underlying loss before tax of A$3.6 million for the first quarter, compared with an underlying profit before tax of A$8.5 million a year earlier.
Newspaper publisher Fairfax Media Ltd (FXJ) hit its lowest in nearly six months, losing as much as 2.4 percent.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) fell 0.6 percent or 44.85 points to 6,885.64.
Healthcare and technology sector lost the most in the region, with Orion Health Group Ltd (OHE) losing 5.96 percent, and software service company Xero Ltd (XRO) declining 2.4 percent.
