Australian Market Trims Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trimming its early losses in mid-market moves on Thursday, giving up the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 7,900 level, with weakness across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 87.10 points or 1.10 percent to 7,847.40, after hitting a low of 7,768.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 91.90 points or 1.13 percent to 8,041.20. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

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

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is down more than 1 percent, Appen is declining more than 3 percent and Zip is slipping more than 7 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are losing more than 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.3 percent and Westpac is losing more than 1 percent, while National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are declining almost 2 percent each. Among gold miners, Gold Road Resources down almost 1 percent, Resolute Mining is declining almost 3 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent, while Northern Star Resources and Newmont are adding more than 2 percent each.

In economic news, the services sector in Australia continued to expand in March, and at a faster rate, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Thursday with a services PMI score of 51.6. That's up from 50.8 in February, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

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