Australian Market Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is sharply extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Thursday, adding to the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 8,750 level, with weakness is financial, energy and technology stocks partially offset by gains in gold miner stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 80.10 points or 0.91 percent to 8,719.40, after hitting a low of 8,701.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 78.00 points or 0.86 percent to 9,001.40. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.1 percent and Fortescue is advancing more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.3 percent. Mineral Resources is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy and Santos are losing more than 2 percent each, while Woodside Energy is declining almost 3 percent and Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 1 percent, Appen is down more than 2 percent, Zip is slipping almost 3 percent, Xero is tumbling more than 6 percent and WiseTech Global is declining more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is tumbling 5.5 percent, National Australia Bank is declining almost 2 percent and Westpac is down more than 2 percent, while Commonwealth Bank is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are advancing almost 2 percent each, while Genesis Minerals is rising 1.5 percent, Resolute Mining is gaining almost 3 percent and Newmont is adding more than 3 percent.

In economic news, the unemployment rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 4.3 percent in October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That was below expectations for 4.4 percent and down from 4.5 percent in September. The participation rate was unchanged at 67.0 percent.

The Australian economy added 42.2K jobs last month, blowing away expectations for an increase of 20K jobs following the increase of 14.9K in the previous month. Full-time employment increased by 55,300 to 10,141,600 people, while part-time employment decreased by 13,100 to 4,541,600 people.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.656 on Thursday.