Australian Market Adds To Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is adding to the early losses in mid-market trading on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from European markets and lack of cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,500 level, with weakness in gold miners, energy and financial stocks partially offset by some gains in technology stocks.

Traders are cautious ahead of the announcement of the first interest rate decision of the year by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) later in the day, where the RBA is widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 40.10 points or 0.45 percent to 8,497.00, after hitting a low of 8,485.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 38.80 points or 0.44 percent to 8,773.10. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.5 percent and Mineral Resources is losing more than 5 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is edging down 0.4 percent and Woodside Energy is declining almost 2 percent, while Beach energy and Origin energy are losing almost 1 percent each. Among tech stocks, Appen is gaining almost 1 percent and Zip is advancing more than 1 percent, while Afterpay owner Block, WiseTech Global and Xero are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Resolute Mining is losing almost 3 percent, while Evolution Mining and Northern Star resources are declining more than 1 percent each. Newmont are edging up 0.2 percent and Gold Road Resources is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing more than 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.4 percent and Westpac is declining more than 2 percent.

In other news, shares in Hub24 are jumping more than 6 percent after the investment platform's profit soared 54 percent and boosted its interim dividend by 30 percent.

Shares in HMC Capital are soaring almost 13 percent after it reported assets under management rose 45 percent to $18.5 billion in the six months to December, with a significant profit contribution from its private equity division.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.635 on Tuesday.