Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 7,200 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by weakness in mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 35.60 points or 0.49 percent to 7,171.30, after hitting a low of 7,158.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 38.20 points or 0.52 percent to 7,364.70. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are losing almost 1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is declining almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is edging down 0.4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent and Santos is adding more than 1 percent, while Beach energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 1 percent and Appen is adding more than 1 percent, while Zip is losing 3.5 percent, Xero is declining more than 2 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 2 percent. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while ANZ Banking is flat.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is declining more than 1 percent, Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent and Newcrest Mining is edging down 0.2 percent, while Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.1 percent and Resolute Mining is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.642 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks attempted to recover from initial weakness on Tuesday but moved back to the downside in the latter part of the session. The major averages all ended the day in negative territory, although the Dow posted a relatively modest loss.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 144.28 points or 1.0 percent to 13,773.61, largely offsetting the strong gain posted on Monday. The S&P 500 also fell 25.56 points or 0.6 percent to 4,461.90, while the Dow edged down 17.73 points or 0.1 percent to 34,645.99.

Meanwhile, the major European markets finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Tuesday to a 10-month closing high after the monthly report from (OPEC) showed the oil market may be a lot tighter than initially thought. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.55 or 1.8 percent at $88.84 a barrel.