Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading notably lower on Friday, reversing some of the sharp gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling to near the 9,000 mark, with weakness in mining and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 56.00 points or 0.62 percent to 9,009.10, after hitting a low of 8,923.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 70.70 points or 0.77 percent to 9,134.50. Australian stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is sliding almost 5 percent, BHP Group is declining almost 4 percent, Fortescue is down more than 2 percent and Rio Tinto is losing more than 3 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.2 percent, while Santos is declining almost 2 percent and Beach energy is losing more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is losing more than 2 percent, Zip is sliding almost 5 percent, Appen is tumbling almost 6 percent, Xero slipping almost 2 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is advancing more than 3 percent and ANZ Banking is gaining more than 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are adding almost 2 percent each.

Gold miners are weak. Northern Star Resources is losing more than 2 percent, Genesis Minerals is sliding more than 4 percent and Newmont is down almost 1 percent, while Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are declining more than 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.693 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move back to the downside during trading on Thursday following the rally seen in the previous session. The major averages all moved sharply lower, more than offsetting yesterday's gains.

The major averages ended the day just off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq nosedive 1,421.52 points or 5.5 percent to 24,315.00, the S&P 500 plummeted 334.89 points or 4.4 percent to 7,353.73 and the Dow plunged 1,833.06 or 3.4 percent to 51,523.06.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Thursday as investors look for the next steps to resolve the U.S.-Iran standoff - either through diplomacy or hostility. West Texas Intermediate crude for December was up $2.29 or 2.60 percent at $90.41 per barrel.