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By Nichiket Sunil

Jan 28 (Reuters) - Australian shares ended marginally lower on Tuesday as global tech stocks took a beating due to the emergence of DeepSeek, a low-cost Chinese AI model, but gains in heavyweight banks kept the benchmark afloat.

The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO was down 0.1% at 8,399.1 points. The Australian equities market was closed on Monday.

Sentiment was largely subdued after real estate .AXRE and tech stocks .AXIJ saw sharp falls after DeepSeek said it had developed a free AI assistant cheaply using lower cost chips and less data than its U.S. rivals.

Data centre firms Goodman Group GMG.AX, NEXTDC NXT.AX and DigiCo Infra REIT DGT.AX slumped 8.2%, 7.2%, and 11.5% respectively, while neuromorphic processor-maker Brainchip BRN.AX plunged 15%.

"Initial market reaction has been that DeepSeek's efficiency spells bad news for large data centres moving forward, though that may not necessarily be the case," Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said.

He added that the sell-off was "overdone and a knee-jerk reaction" as DeepSeek could be viewed "as a positive for the AI industry".

Miners .AXMM also ended the day 0.5% lower after Newmont Corp NEM.AX and South32 S32.AX fell 0.7% and 4.8%, respectively, on uncertainty regarding U.S. tariffs on copper imports and as analysts forecast price cuts for the metal.

In contrast, the banking index .AXFJ advanced 0.3%.

Meanwhile, investors are awaiting Australia's fourth-quarter inflation print, due on Wednesday, which will help determine the central bank's monetary policy trajectory.

Markets are currently pricing in a 66% probability of a quarter-point rate cut next month. 0#AUDIRPR

"If we do see looser monetary policy carried out by the Reserve Bank of Australia in coming months, it may create more appetite for financial loans and the banking sector has moved higher in anticipation of this scenario coming to fruition," KCM's Waterer said.

The "Big Four" banks gained between 0.3% and 0.6% on the day.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 fell 0.3% to end at 12,957.15 points.

(Reporting by Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

((Nichiket.Sunil@thomsonreuters.com;))

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