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 session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling to near the 8,650 level, with weakness in mining stocks partially offset by gains in energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 41.40 points or 0.48 percent to 8,655.70, after hitting a low of 8,621.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 39.50 points or 0.44 percent to 8,884.30. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent, while Fortescue and Rio Tinto are down almost 1 percent each. Mineral Resources is flat.

Oil stocks are higher. Woodside Energy is advancing almost 2 percent, Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent and Santos is edging up 0.4 percent. Origin Energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Zip are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while WiseTech Global is advancing more than 4 percent and Xero is adding more than 2 percent. Appen is losing almost 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly weak. Evolution Mining is losing almost 2 percent, Northern Star resources is down almost 2 percent, Newmont is slipping almost 1 percent and Genesis Minerals is declining almost 3 percent, while Resolute Mining is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are edging down 0.3 percent each, while National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each.

In economic news, the services sector in Australia swung sharply into expansion territory in April, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Tuesday with a services PMI score of 50.7. That's up from 46.3 in March and it moves above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the composite index climbed to 50.4 in April from 46.6 in March.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and then announce its decision on interest rates. The RBA is widely expected to hike its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, to 4.35 percent from 4.10 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.716 on Tuesday.