Australian Market Maintains Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early losses in mid-market trading on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous five sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Monday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling well below the 8,750.00 level, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 56.00 points or 0.64 percent to 8,710.40, after hitting a low of 8,693.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 55.40 points or 0.61 percent to 8,935.40. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is declining more than 1 percent and BHP Group is losing almost 1 percent, while Fortescue is gaining more than 1 percent and Mineral Resources is advancing almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is slipping almost 3 percent, Origin Energy is declining more than 2 percent and Woodside Energy is edging down 0.5 percent, while Santos is edging up 0.4 1ercent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block, Xero and WiseTech Global are losing almost 1 percent each, while Appen is slipping more than 1 percent. Zip is advancing almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources is down 2.5 percent, Newmont is slipping almost 3 percent and Resolute Mining is tumbling more than 5 percent, while Genesis Minerals and Evolution Mining are losing almost 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are losing almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.1 percent. In other news, shares in European Lithium are plummeting almost 60 percent after it struck a deal to merge with Nasdaq-listed Critical Metals Corp in a US$835 million (A$1.2 billion) deal, valuing the ASX-listed miner at 58 cents per share, a 137 percent premium to its last close.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.719 on Tuesday.