Australian Market Maintains Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early losses in mid-market trading on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 7,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors led by iron ore miners and financial stocks. Gold stocks were the only bright spot.

The White House overnight confirmed that Australia would not be exempt from 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminium exports to the US due to start later in the day.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 100.00 points or 1.27 percent to 7,790.10, after hitting a low of 7,733.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 96.40 points or 1.19 percent to 8,007.00. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are losing more than 1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is declining almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is edging down 0.4 percent.

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.2 percent and Appen is up almost 1 percent. WiseTech Global and Xero are losing more than 1 percent each, while Zip is declining more than 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is losing more than 1 percent, while ANZ Banking, Westpac and National Australia Bank are declining almost 2 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Newmont are advancing almost 2 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is adding more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is edging up 0.5 percent. Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.629 on Wednesday.