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, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 9,150 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in energy and technology stocks partially offset by gains in mining and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 18.20 points or 0.20 percent to 9,146.40, after touching a high of 9,220.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 18.70 points or 0.20 percent to 9,356.20. Australian stocks ended notably higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing almost 1 percent and Rio Tinto is adding almost 2 percent, while Fortescue is edging down 0.3 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is declining more than 4 percent, Beach energy is losing more than 2 percent and Santos is down almost 3 percent, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.2 percent, while WiseTech Global is tumbling almost 8 percent, Zip is down almost 1 percent, Xero is declining more than 4 percent and Appen is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is gaining almost 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank, National Australia bank and Westpac are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining, Genesis Minerals and Resolute Mining are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is edging up 0.2 percent and Newmont is adding more than 2 percent.

In other news, shares in DroneShield are tumbling almost 10 percent after reporting a loss compared to a profit last year.

Shares in Domino's Pizza are also tumbling more than 11 percent, after reporting a big loss on writedowns.

In economic news, the annual inflation rate in Australia slowed to 3.5 percent in July 2026 from 3.8 percent in June, but remained above both expectations of 3.3 percent and the central bank's 2-3 percent target range. It was the softest increase since November 2025. The trimmed mean CPI stood at 3.6 percent on year, still the highest since September 2024 and above expectations of 3.5 percent, while the weighted median CPI rose 3.6 percent, after a 3.7 percent rise in June.

On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 1.0 percent, marking the first monthly increase, surpassing expectations of a 0.8 percent rise and recording the fastest increase in four months.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.718 on Wednesday.