Australian Market Doubles Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is doubling its early losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday, snapping a three-session winning streak, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 8,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in gold miners, financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in iron ore miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 83.90 points or 0.95 percent to 8,762.00, after hitting a low of 8,748.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 86.60 points or 0.95 percent to 9,051.20. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Rio Tinto is losing almost 1 percent. Mineral Resources is gaining more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.4 percent, Santos is adding more than 1 percent and Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block, Appen and Xero are losing more than 1 percent each, while Zip is declining almost 5 percent and WiseTech Global is slipping almost 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and National Australia bank are losing almost 2 percent each, while Westpac is declining more than 2 percent and Commonwealth Bank is down almost 1 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Resolute Mining is declining more than 2 percent and Northern Star Resources is down almost 1 percent. Newmont is edging up 0.2 percent.

In other news, shares in Race Oncology are soaring more than 12 percent after achieving an important milestone with Korean regulatory approval for its investigational anticancer drug RC220.

Shares in Barton Gold are jumping more than 11 percent after the gold miner announced promising new gold and silver exploration results.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.662 on Wednesday.