Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading sharply lower on Monday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling below the 7,900.00 level, with weakness across all sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 108.70 points or 1.36 percent to 7,873.30, after hitting a low of 7,865.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 113.70 points or 1.39 percent to 8,081.80. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are losing almost 3 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining almost 4 percent.

Oil stocks are higher. Woodside Energy and Beach energy are declining almost 2 percent each, while Santos is down 1.5 percent and Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are sliding more than 4 percent each, while Xero is losing more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is down more than 1 percent and Zip is slipping almost 6 percent.

Gold miners are lower. Evolution Mining and Newmont are losing almost 2 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is down 1.5 percent, Gold Road Resources is declining more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is slipping almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing almost 2 percent each, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are down almost 1 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.630 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Friday extending the pullback seen over the two previous sessions. The major averages came under pressure early in the session and saw further downside as the day progressed.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a particularly steep loss, plunging 481.04 points or 2.7 percent to a six-month closing low of 17,322.99. The S&P 500 also tumbled 112.37 points or 2.0 percent to 5,580.94, while the Dow slumped 715.80 points or 1.7 percent to 41,583.90.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index declined by 0.9 and the German DAX Index slumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices fell Friday, but the most active futures contract still posted a weekly gain amid prospects of tighter supplies following the U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled at $69.36 a barrel, losing $0.56 or 0.8 percent. WTI crude futures gained 1.6 percent in the week.