Australian Market Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday, reversing the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling well below the 8,850 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in mining and financial stocks partially offset by gains in energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 66.00 points or 0.74 percent to 8,811.70, after hitting a low of 8,806.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 63.70 points or 0.70 percent to 9,087.50. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing more than 1 percent each, while Fortescue is declining 1.5 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping almost 3 percent.

BHP announced plans to suspend operations and cut 750 jobs at a Queensland coking coal mine, citing low prices and high state royalties.

Oil stocks are higher. Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Beach energy is advancing almost 3 percent. Santos is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 1 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are adding more than 1 percent each. Appen is declining almost 2 percent and Zip is losing almost 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia bank is losing more than 1 percent, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each. Commonwealth Bank is flat.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is losing more than 1 percent, Northern Star Resources is declining almost 2 percent and Resolute Mining is down 1.5 percent, while Gold Road Resources and Newmont are losing almost 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in PYC Therapeutics are tumbling more than 28 percent after the clinical-stage biotechnology company announced the sudden resignation of CEO and Executive Director Dr. Rohan Hockings.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.668 on Wednesday.