Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 7,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with losses across most sectors, led by technology and energy stocks as well as coal and gold mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 39.10 points or 0.52 percent to 7,451.20, after hitting a low of 7,428.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 45.50 points or 0.59 percent to 7,650.30. Australian markets ended notably lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, OZ Minerals and Rio Tinto are flat, while Fortescue Metals is edging down 0.5 percent and Mineral Resources is losing 1.5 percent.

The market is also seeing heavy losses among coal miners, with Whitehaven Coal losing 4.5 percent, New Hope Corp sliding more than 7 percent and Yancoal Australia declining almost 7 percent.

Oil stocks are weak. Beach energy is losing more than 2 percent and Woodside Energy is declining more than 1 percent, while Origin Energy and Santos are down almost 1 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is slipping almost 6 percent, WiseTech Global is losing 3.5 percent, Zip is declining almost 4 percent and Xero is down almost 2 percent, while Appen is soaring 9.5 percent. Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is losing almost 1 percent and National Australia Bank is down more than 1 percent, while Westpac and Commonwealth Bank are edging down 0.5 percent each.

Gold miners are lower. Northern Star Resources is losing more than 2 percent, Gold Road Resources is slipping more than 3 percent, Evolution Mining is declining almost 3 percent and Newcrest Mining is down almost 1 percent, while Resolute Mining is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.694 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a significant downturn over the course of the trading session on Thursday after failing to sustain an initial move to the upside. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and into negative territory.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained firmly in the red. The Dow fell 249.13 points or 0.7 percent to 33,699.88, the Nasdaq slumped 120.94 points or 1.0 percent to 11,789.58 and the S&P 500 slid 36.36 points or 0.9 percent to 4,081.50.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures ended lower Thursday as rising crude inventories in the U.S. and prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $78.06 a barrel.