Australian Market Extends Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market in extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Thursday, adding to the losses in the previous three sessions, despite the slightly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling to tad near the 8,300 level, with weakness in iron ore miners, financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in energy and gold miner stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 117.40 points or 1.39 percent to 8,301.80, after hitting a low of 8,287.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 121.10 points or 1.39 percent to 8,578.00. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent, Mineral Resources is down almost 1 percent and Rio Tinto is declining more than 3 percent, while Fortescue Metals is sliding almost 7 percent after reporting downbeat half-yearly results amid falling iron ore oxide prices.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Beach energy are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Santos is advancing almost 2 percent. Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 1 percent, Zip is declining almost 3 percent and Xero is down more than 1 percent, while Appen is gaining more than 2 percent. WiseTech Global is in a sudden trading halt amid a series of allegations levelled against its founder Richard White.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are declining almost 4 percent each, while National Australia Bank is losing more than 4 percent and Commonwealth Bank is down almost 2 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Newmont are advancing more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is adding more than 2 percent. Northern Star Resources is losing almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

In other news, shares in Goodman Group are tumbling more than 6 percent after the industrial property giant announced the completion of a major capital raising of $4 billion through a fully underwritten institutional placement.

Shares in Megaport are skyrocketing more than 16 percent after the network-as-a-solutions provider announced stronger than expected half year result.

In economic news, The unemployment rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 4.1 percent in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - in line with expectations and up from 4.0 percent in December. The Australian economy added 44,000 jobs last month to 14,634,300, exceeding expectations for an increase of 19.400 jobs following the increase of 56,300 jobs in the previous month.

Full-time employment increased by 54,100 to 10,092,800 people, while part-time employment decreased by 10,100 to 4,541,500 people. The participation rate climbed to 67.3 percent, beating forecasts for 67.1 percent - which would have been unchanged.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.634 on Thursday.