Australian Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading modestly lower on Friday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,750 level, with weakness in gold miner, financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in iron miner stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 25.30 points or 0.29 percent to 8,747.70, after hitting a low of 8,746.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 27.00 points or 0.30 percent to 9,036.40. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent, while Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are adding almost 1 percent each. Fortescue is edging down 0.2 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Origin Energy is edging down 0.4 percent, while Santos and Woodside Energy are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each. Beach energy is flat. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is slipping more than 4 percent, Xero is declining almost 2 percent and WiseTech Global is losing more than 2 percent, while Zip and Appen are down more than 1 percent each.

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

Gold miners are mostly lower. Resolute Mining is declining more than 1 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 2 percent, while Gold Road Resources and Northern Star Resources are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each. Newmont is flat.

In other news, shares in Vulcan Energy Resources are jumping almost 10 percent after it signed a major $179 million contract with Turboden and ROM Technik to construct a geothermal power plant near Landau, Germany, with capacity to support 500,000 electric vehicles annually, a crucial step in its Phase One Lionheart Project.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.653 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw further downside during trading on Thursday following the pullback seen over the two previous sessions. The major averages continued to give back ground after ending Monday's trading at new record closing highs.

The major averages ended the day well off their lows of the session but still firmly negative. The Nasdaq slid 113.16 points or 0.5 percent to 22,384.70, the S&P 500 declined 33.25 points or 0.5 percent to 6,604.72 and the Dow fell 173.96 points or 0.4 percent to 45,947.32.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices inched higher on Thursday amid the possibility of Russian oil exports being hit by sanctions by the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.08 or 0.12 percent at $65.07 per barrel.