Australian Market Slips To Modest Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slipping to modest losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday after opening in the green, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 8,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in gold miners, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 11.50 points or 0.13 percent to 8,797.00, after touching a high of 8,838.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 11.30 points or 0.12 percent to 9,127.20. Australian stocks ended notably higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources and Fortescue are edging down 0.1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mixed. Santos and Woodside Energy are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Beach energy is adding more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is declining almost 3 percent, Xero is slipping 1.5 percent and WiseTech Global is losing almost 1 percent, while Zip is adding almost 1 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, Westpac, National Australia bank and Commonwealth Bank are losing almost 1 percent each. ANZ Banking is edging down 0.3 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are losing almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources and Genesis Minerals are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each. Newmont is advancing more than 2 percent.

In economic news, the total number of building approvals issued in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 15.2 percent on month in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at 18,406. That follows the 6.1 percent monthly contraction in October.

On a yearly basis, approvals jumped 20.2 percent after sinking 1.8 percent in the previous month. The value of total building work approved rose 12.8 percent in November to A$18.38 billion, after a 1.8 percent October fall.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.669 on Wednesday.