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 slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,500 level, with weakness in gold miner stocks and a mixed performance across most other sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 37.10 points or 0.44 percent to 8,488.60, after hitting a low of 8,455.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 43.20 points or 0.50 percent to 8,683.30. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Mineral Resources is losing more than 1 percent and BHP Group is edging down 0.5 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Origin Energy and Santos are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy and Beach energy is edging down 0.2 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is edging up 0.5 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent, while Zip is slipping almost 5 percent and Appen are sliding almost 6 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is losing almost 1 percent and ANZ Banking is edging down 0.2 percent, while Commonwealth Bank is gaining almost 1 percent and Westpac is adding more than 1 percent. Gold miners are weak. Northern Star Resources is declining almost 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is slipping more than 3 percent, while Resolute Mining and Evolution Mining are losing more than 1 percent each. Newmont is gaining almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Syrah Resources are tumbling more than 10 percent after the graphite producer raised capital for the fourth time in four years. It successfully completed the institutional component and will now push ahead with retail component of the equity raising. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.689 on Friday.