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 6,700 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with weakness in technology and materials stocks partially by gains in energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 22.30 points or 0.33 percent to 6,655.70, after hitting a low of 6,678.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 26.00 points or 0.38 percent to 6,851.00. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and OZ Minerals are losing almost 2 percent each, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.5 percent and Fortescue Metals is slipping more than 1 percent. Mineral Resources is gaining almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos is gaining almost 1 percent and Woodside Energy is advancing almost 2 percent, while Beach energy is edging down 0.3 percent. Origin Energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block, WiseTech Global and Xero are losing more than 1 percent each, while Zip is slipping almost 5 percent and Appen is down almost 1 percent.

Shares in EML Payments are plunging almost 18 percent following the surprise resignation of its Chief Executive Tom Cregan after more than a decade with the company.

Gold miners are weak, Gold Road Resources and Evolution Mining are losing almost 3 percent each, while Newcrest Mining is down more than 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is declining more than 2 percent. Resolute Mining is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining more than 1 percent and Westpac is adding almost 1 percent, while ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.4 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.683 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Friday after trending higher over the past few sessions. The major averages recovered from an early move to the downside but spent the rest of the session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually finished the session narrowly mixed. While the Nasdaq inched up 13.96 points or 0.1 percent to 11,635.08, the Dow dipped 46.40 points or 0.2 percent to 31,338.15 and the S&P 500 edged down 3.24 points or 0.1 percent to 3,899.38.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, gaining for a second straight day after the stronger than expected jobs report. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August jumped $2.06 or 2 percent at $104.79 a barrel, but WTI crude futures shed more than 3 percent in the week.