Australian Market Extends Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market in extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Thursday, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 8,400 level, with weakness in gold mining and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 53.10 points or 0.63 percent to 8,376.70, after hitting a low of 8,370.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 53.30 points or 0.61 percent to 8,627.20. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Mineral Resources are losing almost 2 percent each, while Rio Tinto is down more than 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is declining more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is adding more than 2 percent, while Origin Energy and Santos are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global is edging down 0.1 percent and Appen is losing almost 2 percent, while Zip is gaining 2.5 percent and Xero is adding 1.5 percent. Afterpay owner Block is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Among gold miners, Gold Road Resources is losing more than 2 percent, Newmont is slipping almost 2 percent, Evolution Mining is declining more than 5 percent and Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.2 percent, while Resolute Mining is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.627 on Thursday.