Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading sharply lower on Friday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,450 level, with weakness across all sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 111.60 points or 1.31 percent to 8,441.10, after hitting a low of 8,383.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 121.70 points or 1.38 percent to 8,712.30. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing more than 2 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining more than 3 percent and Fortescue is slipping almost 4 percent.

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

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are declining more than 1 percent ieach, while Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing almost 1 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Resolute Mining and Genesis Minerals are sliding more than 4 percent each, while Newmont is tumbling almost 5 percent, Northern Star Resources is slipping almost 3 percent and Evolution Mining is declining more than 3 percent.

In other news, shares in Accent Group are sliding more than 10 percent as the retail group downgraded its earnings expectations amid soft trading and heavy discounting.

Shares in Lovisa are tumbling almost 10 percent after Brett Blundy's fashion jewellery chain's same-store sales figures for the first 20 weeks of fiscal 2026 missed expectations by a wide margin.

In economic news, the services sector in Australia continued to expand in November, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Friday with a services PMI score of 52.7. That's up from 52.5 and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the manufacturing PMI improved to 51.6 from 49.7 in October, while the composite index went up to 52.6 from 52.1 a month earlier.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.645 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial downturn over the course of the trading day on Thursday after moving sharply higher early in the session. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and tumbled firmly into negative territory.

The major averages ended the day just off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq plummeted 486.18 points or 2.2 percent to 22,078.05, the S&P 500 plunged 103.40 points or 1.6 percent to 6,538.76 and the Dow slumped 386.51 points or 0.8 percent to 45,752.26,

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. hile the German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices edged lower on Thursday as investors assessed reports of renewed efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war ahead of the U.S. deadline. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.27 or 0.44 percent at $59.18 per barrel.