Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is currently trading modestly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous four sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is staying below the 8,300.00 level, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 21.20 points or 0.26 percent to 8,274.80, after hitting a low of 8,264.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 27.60 points or 0.32 percent to 8,522.70. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing more than 1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is declining almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is down almost 1 percent. Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Beach energy is gaining almost 3 percent. Santos is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 1 percent, Zip is down almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is declining more than 2 percent, while Xero is edging up 0.1 percent. Appen is tumbling more than 10 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is down more than 2 percent, Northern Star Resources is losing almost 1 percent, Newmont is slipping 3.5 percent, Resolute Mining is declining almost 6 percent and Gold Road Resources is slipping almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ Banking and Commonwealth Bank are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in Ventia Serviced are tumbling almost 8 percent after executives at the infrastructure giant were named in a case over alleged price-fixing brought by the ACCC last week.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to contract in December, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from Judo Bank revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 48.2. That's down from 49.4 in November and it moved further beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The services index eased to 50.4 from 50.5 a month earlier, while the composite index slipped into contraction at 49.9 - down from 50.2 in November.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.637 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Friday after failing to sustain an early move to the upside. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing narrowly mixed.

The Dow dipped 86.06 points or 0.2 percent to 43,828.06, closing lower for the seventh consecutive session. The S&P 500 edged down 0.16 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,051.09, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 23.88 points or 0.1 percent to 19,926.72.

Meanwhile, the major European markets showed more modest moves to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Friday as supply worries resurfaced following additional sanctions on Iran and Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.27 or about 1.8 percent at $71.29 a barrel.