Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly lower on Monday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 7,300 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, with weakness in technology and financial stocks partially offset by gains in miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 11.90 points or 0.16 percent to 7,267.60, after hitting a low of 7,263.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 16.70 points or 0.22 percent to 7,454.80. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, Mineral Resources is losing more than 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is edging down 0.3 percent, while BHP Group is edging up 0.2 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos is gaining almost 1 percent, Beach energy is adding more than 1 percent and Woodside Energy is edging up 0.5 percent, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Zip is plunging almost 6 percent, Appen is declining almost 3 percent and Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 2 percent, while Xero is edging up 0.3 percent. WiseTech Global is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mi.ning and Gold Road Resources are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Resolute Mining is gaining more than 1 percent, while Newcrest Mining is edging down 0.3 percent. Northern Star Resources is flat

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

In other news, shares in Tyro Payments are plummeting 16 percent after a private equity consortium led by Potentia Capital have walked away from a takeover deal.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.666 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading session on Friday after an early move to the upside. The major averages pulled back off their early highs and into negative territory after moving sharply higher over the two previous sessions.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached nine-month intraday highs in early trading but ended the day in the red. The Nasdaq dipped 30.94 points or 0.2 percent to 12,657.90 and the S&P 500 edged down 6.07 points or 0.1 percent to 4,191.98, while the Dow fell 109.28 points or 0.3 percent to 33,426.63.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Friday, weighed down by the ambiguity regarding the U.S. debt ceiling talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June slipped $0.31 or 0.4 percent to $71.55 a barrel; WTI crude futures gained 2.2 percent in the week.