Australian Market Tumbles After Holiday

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is tumbling on Tuesday after the long weekend, extending the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 6,600 level, following the broadly negative cues from the global markets overnight, with a sell-off seen across all sectors amid the strong prospects the US Fed aggressively raising interest rates at its meeting on Wednesday to combat persistent inflation. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 337.80 points or 4.87 percent to 6,594.20, after hitting a 16-month low of 6,566.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 355.30 points or 4.97 percent to 6,789.90. Australian stocks closed sharply lower on Friday prior to the holiday on Monday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are slipping more than 5 percent each, while OZ Minerals is plunging almost 7 percent, Fortescue Metals is plummeting almost 8 percent and BHP Group is sliding almost 6 percent.

Oil stocks are lower, with Beach energy slipping 4.5 percent, while Santos, Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are declining more than 4 percent each. Among tech stocks, Xero is sliding more than 6 percent, WiseTech Global is slipping almost 8 percent and Appen is declining almost 9 percent, while Afterpay owner Block and Zip are plummeting more than 17 percent each.

Gold miners are weak. Newcrest Mining is losing more than 2 percent, Resolute Mining is down almost 2 percent, Northern Star Resources is slipping more than 4 percent, Evolution Mining is declining more than 5 percent and Gold Road Resources is sliding almost 4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are plunging more than 5 percent each, while Westpac and ANZ Banking are sliding more than 6 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.694 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Monday, extending the sell-off seen to close out the previous week. With the steep drop on the day, the major U.S. stock indexes ended the session at their lowest closing levels in over a year.

The Dow tumbled 876.05 points or 2.8 percent to 30,516.74, the Nasdaq plummeted 530.80 points or 4.7 percent to 10,809.23 and the S&P 500 plunged 151.23 points or 3.7 percent to 3,749.63.

The major European markets also showed notable moves to the downside. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dove by 1.5 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index plunged 2.4 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures rebounded from early losses and settled modestly higher on Monday as concerns about global supplies outweighed demand worries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $0.26 or 0.2 percent at $120.93 a barrel.