Australian Market Pares Early Strong Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is paring its early strong losses in mid-market trading on Monday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling well below the 8,400.00 level, with weakness across most sectors led by gold miners and technology stocks. Energy stocks are the only bright spot amid spiking crude oil prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 56.30 points or 0.67 percent to 8,372.10, after hitting a low of 8,262.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 69.60 points or 0.81 percent to 8,558.70. Australian stocks closed significantly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing almost 2 percent each, while Mineral Resources is slipping more than 3 percent and Fortescue is declining almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining more than 2 percent and Woodside Energy is edging up 0.4 percent, while Origin Energy and Santos are adding almost 1 percent each. Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent and Zip is gaining almost 3 percent, while WiseTech Global is sliding more than 4 percent, Appen is declining more than 3 percent and Xero is edging down 0.2 percent.

Gold miners are lower. Northern Star Resources is slipping more than 5 percent, Resolute Mining is tumbling more than 7 percent and Genesis Minerals is declining almost 5 percent, while Newmont and Evolution Mining are sliding more than 6 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while National Australia Bank is declining more than 1 percent. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.678 on Monday.