Australian Markets Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly lower on Monday, reversing the slight gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling well below the 8,800.00 level, with weakness in financial stocks partially offset by gains in mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 34.90 points or 0.40 percent to 8,760.30, after hitting a low of 8,722.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 27.60 points or 0.31 percent to 8,878.20. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy is gaining more than 1 percent and Santos is adding almost 2 percent, while Origin Energy is losing more than 1 percent and Beach energy is declining more than 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 3 percent, while Xero edging up 0.3 percent, Appen is advancing almost 6 percent and Zip is jumping more than 9 percent. WiseTech Global is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Genesis Minerals and Resolute Mining are adding more than 3 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is advancing almost 2 percent, Evolution Mining is gaining almost 1 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are all losing more than 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in Ingenia Communities Group are jumping more than 6 percent after the company revealed it received an unsolicited takeover proposal from AVID Property Group, backed by international investors.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.703 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw further downside over the course of the trading day on Friday following the sell-off seen during Thursday's session. The major averages all ended the day in negative territory, with the Dow showing a particularly steep drop.

The Dow slumped 652.82 points or 1.2 percent to 52,215.16, the S&P 500 also fell 39.75 or 0.5 percent to 7,623.68 and the Nasdaq slipped 53.52 points or 0.2 percent to 25,955.34.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices spiked on Friday amid rising fears of fresh U.S.-Iran conflict, as well as the ongoing Houthi-Saudi Arabia violence. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $3.54 or 3.56 percent at $103.01 per barrel.