Australian Market Halves Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is halving its early losses in mid-market trading on Monday, snapping an eight-session winning streak, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling to near the 8,300.00 level, with weakness in iron ore miners, energy and financial stocks partially offset by gains in gold miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 16.40 points or 0.20 percent to 8,327.30, after hitting a low of 8,301.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 21.00 points or 0.25 percent to 8,558.90. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent, Fortescue Metals is slipping more than 2 percent, Mineral Resources is declining almost 5 percent and Rio Tinto is down more than 1 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 1 percent, WiseTech Global is up almost 1 percent and Xero is advancing almost 2 percent, while Zip is losing more than 1 percent and Appen is plunging almost 12 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining almost 4 percent, Resolute Mining is edging up 0.3 percent, Northern Star Resources is adding more than 2 percent, Newmont is advancing almost 3 percent and Gold Road Resources is up more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining more than 1 percent, while National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.641 on Monday.