Australian Market More Than Halves Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is halving its early losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday, reversing the slight gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 8,600 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in mining and energy stocks.

Financial stocks are weak after the Reserve Bank of Australia's unexpected decision to hold interest rates at 3.85 percent.

US President Donald Trump also ramped up his protectionist trade war by threatening 50 percent tariffs on copper imports, which is expected to hit mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto who jointly own the Escondida mine in Chile, which is the world's largest producer of copper concentrates and cathodes. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 23.30 points or 0.27 percent to 8,567.40, after hitting a low of 8,531.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 23.20 points or 0.26 percent to 8,805.50. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.4 percent and Mineral Resources is gaining almost 2 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue metals are adding almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy and Beach energy are advancing more than 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent. Santos is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is declining almost 2 percent and Xero is down almost 1 percent, while Zip and Appen are slipping more than 2 percent each. WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia bank are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Westpac is gaining almost 1 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are tumbling more than 8 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is declining almost 4 percent, Newmont is slipping more than 5 percent and Gold Road Resources is losing almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Lifestyle Communities are plummeting almost 35 percent after the retirement communities company was hit by a tribunal decision that found its lucrative deferred management fees, or exit fees, charged to residents were invalid under state tenancy laws.

In economic news, the total number of building permits issued in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 3.2 percent on month in May, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at 15,212. That was in line with expectations following the 4.1 percent decline in April. On a yearly basis, building permits climbed 6.5 percent - missing forecasts for 8.0 percent and down from 12.0 percent in the previous month.

Permits for private sector houses rose 0.5 percent on month and 3.4 percent on year to 9,454, while permits excluding houses jumped 11.3 percent on month and 11.9 percent on year to 5,571. The value of total residential building rose 3.6 percent to A$9.28 billion, while the value of total non-residential building fell 22.4 percent to A$6.16 billion.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.653 on Wednesday.