Australian Market Trims Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday, but adding to the losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 8,950 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in gold miners, energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 12.20 points or 0.13 percent to 8,941.40, after hitting a low of 8,916.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 7.90 points or 0.09 percent to 8,948.90. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is gaining more than 1 percent and Mineral Resources is advancing more than 2 percent, while BHP Group and Fortescue are edging down 0.2 percent each.

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Zip are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Appen is edging up 0.2 percent. Xero is losing almost 2 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking, Westpac and National Australia bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining, Newmont and Northern Star Resources are losing almost 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is tumbling almost 4 percent.

In other news, shares in James Hardie are surging more than 9 percent after the building-materials company reported preliminary net sales for the second quarter that beat the average analyst estimate.

Shars in Apiam Animal Health are jumping almost 9 percent on news that private equity firm Adamantem has completed its due diligence on the ASX-listed rural veterinary service provider after it lobbed a non-binding indicative offer in August.

Shares in Catalyst Metals are tumbling almost 4 percent after the gold miner reported a quarterly production update revealing a shortfall of 2,000 ounces in gold production.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.656 on Wednesday.