Australian Market Maintains Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early losses in mid-market moves on Friday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 8,700 level, with weakness in mining, energy and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 44.70 points or 0.51 percent to 8,657.30, after hitting a low of 8,639.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 56.00 points or 0.63 percent to 8,841.00. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing more than 1 percent, BHP Group is declining almost 1 percent, Fortescue is edging down 0.5 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Origin Energy are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Beach energy is losing almost 1 percent. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent and Zip is adding more than 1 percent. Xero is losing more than 3 percent, while WiseTech Global and Appen are declining more than 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging down 0.4 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are losing almost 1 percent each, while Newmont is down more than 1 percent and Genesis Minerals is edging down 0.3 percent. Resolute Mining is edging up 0.4 percent.

In other news, shares in Meeka Metals are tumbling almost 26 percent after announcing it raised $40 million fresh equity, which will enable the gold developer to pay a $10 million deferred payment due for an April acqusition.

Shares in Healius Ltd. are jumping almost 10 percent after announcing the sale of Agilex Biolabs to Novotech for $160 million.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.701 on Friday.