Australian Market Slips To Modest Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slipping to modest losses in mid-market moves on Friday after opening in the green, reversing some of the gains in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying below the 8,600 level, with weakness in gold miner and energy stocks partially offset by gains in iron ore miner stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 19.30 points or 0.23 percent to 8,569.90, after touching a high of 8,619.80 and a low of 8,568.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 16.80 points or 0.19 percent to 8,809.90. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 3 percent, Rio Tinto is adding more than 2 percent, Mineral Resources is surging almost 7 percent and Fortescue Metals is advancing almost 4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is losing almost 1 percent, while Origin Energy, Beach energy and Woodside Energy are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is losing almost 1 percent, Xero is down almost 2 percent and Zip is edging down 0.3 percent, while Appen is advancing more than 2 percent. WiseTech Global is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are edging down 0.5 percent each, while National Australia Bank is losing almost 1 percent. ANZ Banking is edging up 0.3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are declining more than 2 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is losing more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is down 1.5 percent. Newmont is flat.

In other news, shares in Johns Lyng are skyrocketing almost 22 percent after it had agreed to a $1 billion takeover deal by private equity group Pacific Equity Partners.

Shares in Lynas Rare Earths are jumping more than 17 percent and fellow ASX-listed rare earths company Iluka Resources soared almost 20 percent after US-based MP Materials skyrocketed 51 percent on the news it has struck a multi-billion dollar deal with the US Department of Defense to build a new magnet plant and expand rare earth capabilities.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.658 on Friday.