Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is sharply lower on Wednesday, giving up the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 7,200 level, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, dragged by weakness across most sectors, led by mining, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 108.10 points or 1.48 percent to 7,196.90, after hitting a low of 7,195.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 107.90 points or 1.44 percent to 7,412.50. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

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

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy and Santos are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Woodside Energy is losing almost 1 percent and Beach energy is declining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are declining almost 4 percent each, while Appen is edging down 0.5 percent and Xero is losing more than 2 percent. Zip is gaining almost 1 percent. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is losing 1.5 percent, while National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are declining more than 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining, Newcrest Mining and Gold Road Resources are losing more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining and Northern Star Resources are down almost 1 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.644 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks languished in the red right through the day's session and eventually ended on a weak note on Tuesday after a gap down opening and a subsequent fall to lower levels.

The major averages all ended notably lower. The Dow ended with a loss of 361.24 points or 1.02 percent at 34,946.39. The S&P 500 ended down 51.86 points or 1.16 percent at 4,437.86, and the Nasdaq settled at 13,631.05, recording a loss of 157.28 points or 1.14 percent.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 1.57 percent, Germany's DAX drifted down 0.86 percent, and France's CAC 40 fell 1.1 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand following a batch of weak economic data from China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September sank $1.52 or 1.8 percent at $80.99 a barrel.