Australian Market Pares Strong Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is paring its strong early losses in mid-market trading on Tuesday, reversing some of the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying above the 7,800 level, with weakness in technology and energy stocks partially offset by gains in gold miners and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 3.20 points or 0.04 percent to 7,815.90 after hitting a low of 7,745.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 9.20 points or 0.12 percent to 8,012.70. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Thursday ahead of the holidays on Friday and Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group, Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is edging down 0.1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is losing almost 1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Beach energy are declining more than 1 percent each. Origin Energy is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is slipping more than 5 percent, Zip is declining almost 8 percent, Xero is down almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is losing more than 2 percent, while Appen is edging up 0.3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining more than 4 percent, Gold Road Resources is up almost 2 percent, Northern Star resources is adding more than 2 percent and Resolute Mining is soaring almost 10 percent, while Newmont is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac is edging up 0.5 percent and Commonwealth Bank is gaining almost 2 percent, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.3 percent. National Australia Bank is flat.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.643 on Tuesday.