Australian Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is significantly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 6,700 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, dragged by weakness across most sectors, led by gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 89.80 points or 1.33 percent to 6,673.00, after hitting a low of 6,656.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 95.00 points or 1.36 percent to 6,881.10. Australian stocks closed significantly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Mineral Resources and Fortescue Metals are edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each. OZ Minerals is declining almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower.Origin Energy is declining almost 3 percent, Santos is losing almost 1 percent and Woodside Energy is edging down 0.5 percent, while Beach energy is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is plunging more than 6 percent, Xero is slipping more than 3 percent, Zip is sliding more than 4 percent, WiseTech Global is declining more than 2 percent and Appen is losing almost 4 percent.

Gold miners are lower, Gold Road Resources, Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources are slipping almost 4 percent each, while Evolution Mining is declining more than 4 percent and Resolute Mining is losing more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is losing more than 2 percent and Westpac is down more than 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are declining almost 2 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.637 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Friday with worries about higher interest rates continuing to weigh on Wall Street. The major averages added to the losses posted on Wednesday and Thursday, further offsetting the substantial recovery rally seen to start the week.

The major averages climbed off their lows of the session going into the close but still posted steep losses. The Dow tumbled 630.15 points or 2.1 percent to 29,296.79, the Nasdaq plummeted 420.91 points or 3.8 percent to 10,652.40 and the S&P 500 plunged 104.86 points or 2.8 percent to 3,639.66.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.2 percent and the German DAX Index tumbled by 1.6 percent.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday, continuing to find support from the OPEC decision last week to cut output by 2 million barrels per day. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $4.19 or 4.7 percent at $92.64 a barrel, settling at a five-week high.