Australian Market Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early losses in mid-market trading on Monday, reversing the gains 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 8,800.00 level, with weakness in mining and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 34.60 points or 0.39 percent to 8,771.40, after hitting a low of 8,770.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 37.50 points or 0.42 percent to 8,966.20. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is tumbling more than 4 percent. Fortescue is gaining more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent and Woodside Energy is edging up 0.2 percent, while Santos is edging down 0.4 percent and Origin Energy is losing more than 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is slipping more than 1 percent, Appen is down almost 2 percent and WiseTech Global is declining almost 3 percent, while Xero and Zip are tumbling almost 4 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Resolute Mining is slipping more than 4 percent, Northern Star Resources is declining almost 3 percent, Evolution Mining is losing almost 2 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.5 percent, while Genesis Minerals is gaining more than 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is gaining almost 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.4 percent each. In other news, shares in Dateline Resources are jumping almost 26 percent after receiving some welcome support from the US Government. The US DoJ filed documents opposing a legal challenge surrounding the Colosseum project, the 100%-owned gold and rare earths project in California.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.693 on Monday.