Australian Market Expands Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is expanding its early losses in mid-market trading on Monday, adding to the slight losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling well below the 9,250.00 level, with weakness in energy and financial partially offset by gains in mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 42.00 points or 0.45 percent to 9,221.60, after hitting a low of 9,204.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 34.30 points or 0.36 percent to 9,410.80. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue is edging up 0.3 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing almost 2 percent, Rio Tinto is adding almost 1 percent and BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy and Origin Energy are losing more than 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy and Santos are edging down 0.2 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 2 percent and Appen is losing almost 1 percent. WiseTech Global and Xero are advancing almost 2 percent each, while Zip is edging up 0.4 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Resolute Mining is surging more than 1 percent, Newmont is advancing more than 4 percent, Genesis Minerals is up more than 1 percent, Northern Star Resources is adding almost 2 percent and Evolution Mining is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is down more than 1 percent and Westpac is declining almost 5 percent, while National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are losing almost 2 percent each. In other news, shares in FleetPartners are jumping almost 11 percent after the vehicle leasing company rejected a $3.60 per share takeover bid at from SG Fleet, and reported that it had received a $3.80 offer over the weekend from Element Fleet Management.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.706 on Monday.