Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading notably lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,700 level, with weakness in mining and financial stocks partially offset by gains in energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 42.20 points or 0.49 percent to 8,667.20, after hitting a low of 8,663.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 42.30 points or 0.47 percent to 8,937.10. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is edging down 0.4 percent and Fortescue is declining almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos is gaining almost 1 percent, Woodside Energy is advancing almost 2 percent and Beach energy is edging up 0.4 percent, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is gaining almost 1 percent, Appen is edging up 0.4 percent and Zip is adding almost 2 percent, while WiseTech Global is losing almost 1 percent and Xero is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are losing almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining, Resolute Mining and Northern Star Resources are losing almost 2 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.3 percent. Newmont is gaining almost 4 percent after its quarterly profit topped estimates by 23 percent.

In other news, shares in Icetana are soaring almost 14 percent after reporting a 13 percent growth in total quarterly revenues, generated by deployments of existing orders and contract renewals.

Shares in KMD Brands are jumping 6.5 percent after tapping Qantas executive Carla Webb-Sear to become its chief financial officer.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.659 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a mixed performance on Thursday after a strong session a day earlier, with the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 opening higher and hitting fresh record closing highs. Conversely, the Dow opened in the red and remained under water throughout the day, weighed by losses from heavyweight IBM, which may be facing an investigation into billing practices.

The Dow stumbled 316.38 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 44,693.91, while the NASDAQ gained 37.94 points or 0.18 percent to close at 21,057.96 and the S&P 500 rose 4.44 points or 0.07 percent to end at 6,363.35.

The major European markets also closed mixed on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.85 percent, Germany's DAX closed up 0.23 percent and France's CAC 40 drifted down 0.41 percent.

Crude oil prices rose on Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stockpiles declined more than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for September was up $0.87 or 1.33 percent to $66.12 per barrel.