Australian Market Maintains Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early losses in mid-market moves on Friday, extending the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the 8,850 level, with weakness financial and mining stocks partially offset by gains in energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 114.50 points or 1.28 percent to 8,825.80, after hitting a low of 8,811.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 106.20 points or 1.16 percent to 9,058.70. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are tumbling more than 6 percent each, while Fortescue is declining almost 4 percent and Mineral Resources is losing more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Santos are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.4 percent. Woodside Energy is losing almost 3 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is advancing more than 4 percent, WiseTech Global is jumping more than 6 percent, Zip is gaining more than 1 percent, Xero is surging more than 5 percent and Appen is advancing almost 6 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is losing more than 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.1 percent, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are down almost 1 percent each. Gold miners are weak. Evolution Mining, Resolute Mining and Genesis Minerals are losing more than 4 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is tumbling more than 6 percent and Newmont is declining more than 2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.704 on Friday.