Australian Market Slips To Slight Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slipping to slight losses in mid-market trading on Tuesday after opening in the green, reversing some of the losses in the previous three sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving well above the 8,800 level, with weakness in gold miners and technology stocks partially offset by gains in iron ore miner stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 5.10 points or 0.06 percent to 8,811.00, after touching a high of 8,849.90 and a low of 8,798.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 15.30 points or 0.17 percent to 9,015.90. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, Mineral Resources is edging up 0.3 percent, while Fortescue, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy and Santos are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Origin Energy and Woodside Energy are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 1 percent, Zip is edging down 0.3 percent and Xero is declining more than 2 percent, while WiseTech Global is advancing almost 4 percent. Appen is flat.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources is declining almost 2 percent. Evolution Mining is losing more than 1 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.5 percent, while Resolute Mining is slipping more than 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is down almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while National Australia Bank is gaining almost 1 percent and Westpac is edging up 0.3 percent.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to expand in June, and at a faster rate, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Tuesday with a manufacturing PMI score of 51.2. That's up from 50.7 in May and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the services PMI improved to 49.9 from 48.7 and the composite PMI moved up to 49.8 from 48.7.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.698 on Tuesday.