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, giving up 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 well below the 9,050 level, with weakness in gold miners and financial stocks partially offset by gains in iron ore miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 15.10 points or 0.17 percent to 9,017.70, after touching a high of 9,054.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 12.10 points or 0.13 percent to 9,317.00. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is gaining 1.5 percent and Mineral Resources is surging more than 6 percent, while Fortescue is losing almost 2 percent. BHP Group is flat.

Oil stocks are mixed. Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent and Santos is losing more than 1 percent, while Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent and Woodside Energy is edging up 0.5 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is gaining almost 3 percent, Zip is adding almost 2 percent, WiseTech Global is advancing almost 4 percent and Xero is up almost 1 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is down almost 1 percent, while ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are losing more than 1 percent each. Westpac is flat.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Resolute Mining is down more than percent, Northern Star Resources is losing almost 1 percent and Newmont is declining more than 3 percent, while Evolution Mining and Genesis Minerals are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

In other news, shares in Mount Gibson Iron are plummeting almost 28 percent after the miner was announced the suspension of mining at an 80-year-old iron ore mine on Koolan Island due to last week's irreparable rockfall and associated safety concerns.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia slipped into contraction in October, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Friday with a manufacturing PMI 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 services PMI improved to 53.1, up from 52.4 in September, while the composite ticked up to 52.6 from 52.4 a month earlier.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Friday.