Australian Market Drifts Further Lower In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is drifting further lower in mid-market trading on Monday, adding to the losses in the previous four sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index still staying below the 8,300.00 level, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 30.80 points or 0.37 percent to 8,265.20, after hitting a low of 8,264.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 39.30 points or 0.46 percent to 8,511.00. Among the major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent, Rio Tinto is down 1.5 percent, Fortescue Metals is declining 2.5 percent and Mineral Resources is down more than 1 percent. Oil stocks are mixed. Santos and Origin Energy are edging up 0.1 percent each, while Beach energy is gaining almost 2 percent. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are losing more than 1 percent each, while Zip and Xero are edging up 0.2 percent each. Appen is tumbling more almost 4 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is down almost 2 percent, Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.5 percent, Newmont is slipping 3.5 percent, Resolute Mining is declining more than 5 percent and Gold Road Resources is slipping almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ Banking and Commonwealth Bank are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in Ventia Serviced are tumbling almost 8 percent after executives at the infrastructure giant were named in a case over alleged price-fixing brought by the ACCC last week.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to contract in December, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from Judo Bank revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 48.2. That's down from 49.4 in November and it moved further beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The services index eased to 50.4 from 50.5 a month earlier, while the composite index slipped into contraction at 49.9 - down from 50.2 in November.

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