Australian Market Slips To Slight Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is slipping to slight losses in mid-market moves on Thursday after opening in the green, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying below the 8,550 level, with by weakness in energy and financial stocks partially offset gains in iron ore miners and some technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 6.40 points or 0.08 percent to 8,535.40, after touching a high of 8,567.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 3.90 points or 0.04 percent to 8,766.30. Australian stocks ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.3 percent each, while Mineral Resources is surging 7.5 percent and Fortescue Metals is adding more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Origin Energy are losing more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is down more than 2 percent and Woodside Energy is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Zip is gaining almost 3 percent. Xero and Appen are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are edging down 0.4 percent each, while Westpac is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Newmont is edging down 0.2 percent and Evolution Mining is losing more than 1 percent. Resolute Mining is flat.

In other news, shares in IperionX are soaring more than 26 percent after being awarded a contract worth up to US$99 million by the US Department of Defence to supply titanium components and parts.

Shares in Tyro payments are tumbling almost 10 percent after announcing the shocking exit of chief executive Jon Davey after accepting the top job at a private-equity backed business.

Shares in Lynas are surging more than 10 percent after major European car makers said China's rare earths export controls were disrupting its supplier networks.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.650 on Thursday.