Australian Market Maintains Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintain its early losses in mid-market trading on Friday after opening in the green, also adding to the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from European markets and lack of cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 8,300 level, with weakness in financial, energy and technology stocks partially offset by gains in mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 50.40 points or 0.61 percent to 8,278.80, after hitting a low of 8,262.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 48.80 points or 0.57 percent to 8,529.00. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Rio Tinto is adding almost 2 percent, while Mineral Resources and Fortescue Metals are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly weak. Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Santos are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Beach energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is down more than 1 percent, WiseTech Global is losing almost 1 percent, Appen is declining almost 1 percent and Xero is edging down 0.5 percent, while Zip is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing almost 2 percent each, while Westpac is declining more than 2 percent and ANZ Banking is down almost 1 percent. Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining almost 1 percent and Newmont is adding more than 1 percent, while Resolute Mining and Northern Star Resources are edging up 0.3 and 0.5 percent each. Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.620 on Friday.