Australian Market Significantly Lower

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading significantly lower on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous six sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling to stay a tad above the 7,700 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 58.40 points or 0.75 percent to 7,708.30, after hitting a low of 7,696.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 55.10 points or 0.69 percent to 7,979.80. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing more than 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is declining almost 2 percent, while BHP Group is edging up 0.1 percent. Mineral Resources is flat.

Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.1 percent and Beach energy is gaining almost 2 percent, while Origin Energy and Santos are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are losing almost 1 percent each, while Xero is edging down 0.3 percent. Zip is edging up 0.2 percent and Appen is gaining almost 1 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Newmont is edging up 0.4 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing more than 4 percent, while Evolution Mining, Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in respirator company Fisher & Paykel are surging 6 percent on optimism about 2025 net profit after 2024 was hit by three "abnormal items".

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.664 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, the Nasdaq and the Dow turned in a mixed performance throughout much of the trading day on Tuesday after moving in opposite directions early in the session. While the Nasdaq briefly joined the Dow in negative territory in afternoon trading, the tech-heavy index rebounded to end the day at a new record closing high.

The major averages ended mixed, The Nasdaq climbed 99.09 points or 0.6 percent to 17,019.88, adding to the strong gain posted last Friday. The S&P 500 also inched up 1.32 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,306.04, while the Dow slid 216.73 points or 0.6 percent to 38,852.86, extending the sharp pullback seen last week.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index declined by 0.5 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 0.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices rose Tuesday on hopes demand for oil will pick up in the U.S. driving season, and on expectations that OPEC will extend its production cuts into the next quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $2.11 or 2.7 percent at $79.83 a barrel.