Australian Market Extends Early Strong Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early strong losses in mid-market moves on Friday, reversing the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 8,950 level, with weakness across all segments led by technology and mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 118.10 points or 1.31 percent to 8,925.40, after hitting a low of 8,912.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 131.70 points or 1.42 percent to 9,150.10. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing almost 1 percent, BHP Group is declining 1.5 percent, Fortescue is edging down 0.2 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping almost 3 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly weak. Santos is slipping more than 1 percent, Woodside Energy is down almost 1 percent and Beach energy is declining almost 2 percent, while Origin Energy is gaining almost 4 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is declining more than 7 percent, WiseTech Global is tumbling almost 13 percent, Zip is sliding more than 4 percent, Xero is losing more than 5 percent and Appen is slipping almost 7 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing more than 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.3 percent and Westpac is down almost 1 percent. Gold miners are weak. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are losing more than 4 percent each, while Newmont is slipping more than 3 percent, Genesis Minerals is tumbling more than 6 percent and Resolute Mining is down almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.709 on Friday.