Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,400 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors, led by financial, mining and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 36.70 points or 0.49 percent to 7,414.00, after hitting a low of 7,387.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 34.70 points or 0.45 percent to 7,629.00. Australian stocks ended notably higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are edging down 0.3 percent each, while Mineral Resources is losing 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is declining almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy, Beach energy and Santos are losing almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy is flat.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are losing more than 1 percent each, while Xero and WiseTech Global are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each. Zip is declining almost 2 percent. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking, National Australia Bank and Westpac are all losing more than 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are losing almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is declining almost 2 percent and Newcrest Mining is edging down 0.5 percent. Gold Road Resources is flat.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.662 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks saw modest weakness to kick off the month of August following a strong July. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 moved to the downside, although the narrower Dow managed to finish the day in positive territory.

The Nasdaq slid 62.11 points or 0.4 percent to 14,283.91 and the S&P 500 fell 12.23 points or 0.3 percent to 4,576.73, but the Dow rose 71.15 points or 0.2 percent to 35,630.68, its best closing level in well over a year.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.2 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures ended lower on Tuesday thanks to a firm dollar and data showing a slowdown in global manufacturing activity. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended lower by $0.43 at $81.37 a barrel.