Australian Market Trimming Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early losses in mid-market trading on Monday, and reversing the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling to near the 7,900.00 level, with a mixed performance across most sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 6.00 points or 0.08 percent to 7,925.20, after hitting a low of 7,899.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 10.30 points or 0.13 percent to 8,148.40. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is edging up 0.2 percent, Fortescue Metals is gaining more than 2 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 3 percent, while BHP Group is losing almost 1 percent. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent, Santos is edging up 0.4 percent and Beach energy is adding more than 1 percent, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is advancing more than 1 percent, Zip is up almost 1 percent, Xero is edging up 0.2 percent and Appen is adding almost 2 percent, while WiseTech Global is losing more than 3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Newmont is edging up 0.3 percent. Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.4 percent and Resolute Mining is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in Helia are plummeting almost 26 percent after the lender mortgage insurance provided an update on its supply and service contract with Commonwealth Bank, which may not run beyond December 31 as the banking giant is in exclusive talks with an alternative mortgage insurers.

Shares in James Hardie Industries are tumbling more than 12 percent after striking a deal to merge with NYSE-listed AZEK in a cash and share transaction worth $8.8 billion (A$14 billion).

Shares in Synlait Milk are also slumping more than 9 percent as the milk producer's latest result failed to impress investors. That was despite Synlait swinging back to profit and posting a 105 percent spike in profit.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to expand in March, and at a faster pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 52.6. That's up from 50.4 in February, 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 51.2 from 50.8 in the previous month, and the composite PMI went up to 51.3 from 50.6 a month earlier.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.627 on Monday.