Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is sharply lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 6,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors as traders digested the fourth successive 50 basis points hike in cash rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia to the highest level since 2015.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 102.50 points or 1.50 percent to 6,724.00, after hitting a low of 6,723.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 105.60 points or 1.50 percent to 6,950.30. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

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

Oil stocks are lower. Santos, Origin Energy and Woodside Energy are losing almost 2 percent each, while Beach energy is declining more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Zip are declining more than 2 percent each, while Xero is losing almost 2 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 1 percent, while Appen is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is edging down 0.4 percent, National Australia Bank is losing almost 2 percent, Westpac is down more than 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is declining almost 1 percent. Among gold miners, Resolute Mining, Gold Road Resources and Newcrest Mining are losing almost 2 percent each, while Evolution Mining is declining more than 3 percent and Northern Star Resources is down more than 2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.671 on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Tuesday after an initial move to the upside. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before ending the day firmly negative.

The major averages finished the session at their worst closing levels in well over a month. The Dow fell 173.14 points or 0.6 percent to 31,145.30, the Nasdaq slid 85.96 points or 0.7 percent to 1,544.91 and the S&P 500 dipped 16.07 points or 0.4 percent to 3,908.19.

Meanwhile, European stocks finished a choppy session mostly higher. While the German DAX Index advanced by 0.9 percent. the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both edged up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil futures settled barely higher on Tuesday after the decision by OPEC+ to cut output by 100,000 barrels per day in October, although the dollar's uptick limited oil's upside. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by a penny or $0.09% at $86.88 a barrel.