Australian Market Slashes Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slashing its early losses in mid-market trading on Monday, but extending the losses in the previous four sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is staying below the 8,850 level, with weakness in materials stocks partially offset by gains in energy, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 10.10 points or 0.11 percent to 8,871.80, after hitting a low of 8,829.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 14.50 points or 0.16 percent to 9,163.50. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent, while BHP Group and Fortescue are edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent and Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos are adding almost 1 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is adding almost 3 percent, Zip is advancing more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is edging up 0.4 percent and Xero is up more than 1 percent, while Appen is losing more than 3 percent.

Gold miners are weak. Evolution Mining and Genesis Minerals are declining almost 3 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is losing almost 2 percent, Newmont is down more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is tumbling more than 5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining more than 1 percent, National Australia Bank is edging up 0.4 percent, ANZ Banking is adding almost 1 percent and Westpac is advancing almost 3 percent.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia fell into contraction territory in October, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Monday with a Performance of Manufacturing Index score of 49.7. That's down from 51.4 in September, and it falls beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The total number of building permits issued in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 12.0 percent on month in September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday - coming in at 17,019. That beat forecasts for an increase of 5.1 percent following the upwardly revised 3.6 percent drop in August (originally -6.0 percent). On a yearly basis, approvals were up 12.4 percent after slipping 0.7 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.655 on Monday.