Australian Market Slightly Trims Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market slightly trimmed the early losses and is trading notably lower in mid-market moves on Thursday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling to near the 8,300 level, with weakness across most sectors led by technology and financial stocks. Gold miners remain the only bright spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 41.30 points or 0.50 percent to 8,307.80, after hitting a low of 8,291.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 42.30 points or 0.49 percent to 8,557.10. Australian stocks ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is losing almost 3 percent and BHP Group is declining more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy, Beach energy and Santos are losing more than 1 percent each, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 1 percent, WiseTech Global is down almost 1 percent, Appen is slipping almost 8 percent and Zip declining almost 3 percent, while Xero is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are losing almost 1 percent each, while Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Newmont is adding almost 3 percent and Northern Star Resources is advancing more than 3 percent, while Resolute Mining is losing almost 2 percent.

In other news, shares in Star Entertainment are plummeting almost 25 percent after the company warned it has just $79 million left in cash, far less than it spent in the past three months. Shares in Avita Medical tumbled almost 13 percent after the company admitted it would miss revenue forecasts.

In economic news, the value of retail sales in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent on month in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - coming in at A$37.052 billion. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 1.0 percent but was up from 0.6 percent in October.

Meanwhile, Australia posted a seasonally adjusted merchandise trade surplus of A$7.079 billion November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That beat expectations for a surplus of A$5.750 billion following the upwardly revised A$5.670 billion surplus in October (originally A$5.593 billion).

Exports were up 4.8 percent on month to A$43.816 billion, up from the downwardly revised 3.5 percent increase in the previous month (originally 3.6 percent). Imports were up 1.7 percent on month at A$36.737 billion following the downwardly revised 0.1 percent contraction a month earlier (originally +0.1 percent).

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.621 on Thursday.