Australian Market Slips To Slight Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slipping to slight losses in mid-market moves on Friday after opening in the green, reversing the slight gains in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,650 level, with weakness in mining and energy stocks partially offset by gains in financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 4.90 points or 0.06 percent to 8,635.80, after touching a high of 8,691.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 7.40 points or 0.08 percent to 8,877.30. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are declining more than 3 percent each, while Fortescue is down more than 2 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping more than 7 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent, Xero is jumping almost 9 percent, WiseTech Global is adding more than 3 percent, Appen is advancing almost 4 percent and Zip is up more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while ANZ Banking is adding almost 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is advancing almost 3 percent. Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources is down almost 3 percent, Newmont is declining more than 3 percent and Genesis Minerals is edging down 0.5 percent, while Resolute Mining and Evolution Mining are tumbling almost 5 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.719 on Friday.