Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is sharply lower on Friday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 6,600 level, following the mixed cues overnight from Wall Street, dragged by weakness in materials and energy stocks amid tumbling commodity prices on fears of demand slowdown from top importer China. Financial stocks are also weak.

The increasing COVID-19 cases across the country is also weighing on market sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 90.40 points or 1.36 percent to 6,560.20, after hitting a low of 6,537.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 94.00 points or 1.37 percent to 6,754.60. Australian markets ended modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing more than 3 percent, BHP Group is down almost 4 percent, OZ Minerals is sliding more than 4 percent, Mineral Resources is declining almost 5 percent and Fortescue Metals is slipping more than 5 percent.

Oil stocks are lower. Origin Energy, Santos and Woodside Energy are losing more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is declining more than 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is gaining more than 4 percent and Zip is adding more than 2 percent, while Appen is losing more than 4 percent, Xero is down more than 1 percent and Afterpay owner Block is slipping almost 4 percent. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are losing almost 2 percent each, while National Australia Bank is down more than 1 percent and ANZ Banking is declining more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are lower. Northern Star Resources, Newcrest Mining and Evolution Mining are losing more than 2 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is down almost 2 percent and Resolute Mining is slipping more than 3 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.675 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks regained ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday but still ended the day mostly lower after moving sharply lower early in the session. The major averages climbed well off their worst levels of the day, with the Nasdaq closing just above the unchanged line.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged as much as 2.1 percent in early trading but ended the day up 3.60 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 11,251.19. Meanwhile, the Dow fell 142.62 points or 0.5 percent to 30,630.17 and the S&P 500 dipped 11.40 points or 0.3 percent to 3,790.38.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all showed significant moves to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index plunged 1.9 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index tumbled by 1.6 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Thursday as concerns about the outlook for energy demand resurfaced amid fears of a possible recession due to rising interest rates. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $0.52 or 0.5 percent at $95.78 a barrel.