Australian Market Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Friday, adding to the losses in the previous three sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the psychological 8,000 mark, with weakness across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 122.40 points or 1.51 percent to 7,972.30, after hitting a low of 7,963.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 122.30 points or 1.47 percent to 8,204.10. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are declining almost 1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.1 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping almost 3 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent and Beach energy is edging down 0.4 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos are losing more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is losing 1.5 percent, Xero is declining more than 3 percent, Zip is slipping more than 6 percent and WiseTech Global is down 2.5 percent, while Appen is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is declining more than 3 percent and National Australia Bank is down more than 1 percent, Westpac and ANZ Banking are slipping more than 2 percent each. Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is losing more than 2 percent, Resolute Mining is declining almost 2 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.1 percent, while Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are slipping almost 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in Insignia Financial are jumping more than 10 percent after private equity houses Bain and CC Capital sweetened their bids for the wealth manager to $5 a share, valuing it at around $3.4 billion.

Star Entertainment is still in a trading halt, but confirmed talks to sell Brisbane casino.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.632 on Friday.