Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading sharply lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,750 level, with weakness across all segments led by technology and mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 142.30 points or 1.60 percent to 8,746.90, after hitting a low of 8,739.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 164.30 points or 1.80 percent to 8,990.60. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is edging down 0.4 percent, BHP Group is declining almost 3 percent, Fortescue is losing almost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is tumbling more than 4 percent.

Oil stocks are weak. Santos is slipping more than 1 percent, Woodside Energy is down almost 2 percent, Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent and Beach energy is declining almost 4 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is declining almost 7 percent, WiseTech Global is slipping almost 5 percent, Zip is sliding almost 6 percent, Xero is losing more than 2 percent and Appen is tumbling almost 9 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are losing more than 1 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are edging down 0.1 percent each. Gold miners are weak. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are losing more than 2 percent each, while Newmont and Genesis Minerals are tumbling more than 6 percent each. Resolute Mining is down almost 2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.692 on Friday.

On Wall Street, major U.S. stock indexes all moved sharply lower during trading on Thursday following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way lower, tumbling to its lowest closing level in over two months.

The major averages ended the day off their worst levels of the session but still firmly negative. The Nasdaq plunged 363.99 points or 1.6 percent to 22,540.59, the S&P 500 tumbled 84.32 points or 1.2 percent to 6,798.40 and the Dow slumped 592.58 points or 1.2 percent to 48,908.72.

The major European markets all also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.9 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.5 percent and the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices plunged on Thursday after weak U.S. jobs data increased demand concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was down $1.87 or 2.87 percent at $63.27 per barrel.