Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading modestly lower on Thursday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,800 level, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 32.20 points or 0.37 percent to 8,786.30, after hitting a low of 8,777.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 32.00 points or 0.35 percent to 9,062.90. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday.

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

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is losing almost 3 percent, Origin is declining more than 2 percent and Woodside Energy is tumbling 4.5 percent, while Santos is plunging more than 11 percent after the XRG Consortium dropped its takeover bid for the energy company.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 1 percent and Xero is edging up 0.3 percent. WiseTech Global and Zip are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Appen is declining more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 1 percent and National Australia Bank is edging down 0.1 percent, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are flat.

Among gold miners, Newmont is adding almost 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is edging up 0.1 percent, while Evolution Mining is losing more than 1 percent, Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.4 percent and Resolute Mining is down almost 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.665 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a lackluster performance throughout much of the session on Wednesday before seeing substantial volatility in afternoon trading following the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement.

The major averages showed wild swings back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing mixed. While the Dow climbed 260.42 points or 0.6 percent to 46,018.32, the S&P 500 edged down 6.41 points or 0.1 percent to 6,600.35 and the Nasdaq fell 72.63 points or 0.3 percent to 22,261.33.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both crept up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices moved lower on Wednesday even as drone strikes on Russian ports and refineries disrupting Russian oil supply have increased supply side concerns. WTI Crude Oil for October delivery was last seen trading down by $0.53 or 0.82 percent at $63.99 per barrel.