Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading modestly loser on Friday, reversing the gains in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,400 level, with weakness in iron ore miners and technology stocks partially offset by a mixed performance in energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 17.90 points or 0.21 percent to 8,391.90, after hitting a low of 8,384.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 20.10 points or 0.23 percent to 8,617.70. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Fortescue Metals is losing more than 1 percent, Rio Tinto is edging down 0.4 percent and Mineral Resources is declining more than 3 percent, while BHP Group is edging up 0.2 percent. Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy is losing almost 1 percent, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.4 percent. Santos and Beach energy are flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is declining almost 3 percent, Xero is edging down 0.4 percent, Zip is down more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is losing almost 2 percent and Appen is sliding more than 5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.2 to 0.3 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Gold Road Resources and Northern Star Resources are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Evolution Mining and Newmont are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each. Resolute Mining is gaining almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in HealthCo Healthcare & Wellness REIT are jumping more than 13 percent after striking an agreement with Healthscope and its receivers to partially defer rental payments.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.645 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Thursday after failing to sustain a strong move to the upside early in the session. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing moderately higher.

The Dow rose 117.03 points or 0.3 percent to 42,215.73, the Nasdaq climbed 74.93 points or 0.4 percent to 19,175.87 and the S&P 500 increased 23.62 points or 0.4 percent to 5,912.17.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.4 percent on the day, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower Thursday amid lingering supply concerns amid the possibility OPEC may accelerate oil production hikes in July. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery tumbled $0.90 or 1.5 percent to $60.94 a barrel.