Australian Market Maintains Early Strong Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early strong losses in mid-market trading on Monday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is tumbling more than 3.5 percent to below the 8,600.00 level, with weakness across most sectors led by financial, mining and technology stocks amid concerns about the military conflict in the Middle-East. Energy stocks are the only bright spot amid spiking crude oil prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 316.90 points or 3.58 percent to 8,534.10, after hitting a low of 8,457.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 326.80 points or 3.60 percent to 8,758.30. Australian stocks closed significantly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Mineral Resources is tumbling almost 6 percent, Rio Tinto is declining more than 5 percent, Fortescue is losing more than 3 percent and BHP Group is sliding more than 6 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining almost 2 percent, Woodside Energy is adding almost 1 percent and Santos is advancing almost 3 percent, while Origin Energy is losing almost 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Xero are declining more than 5 percent each, while WiseTech Global is losing more than 4 percent, Appen is slipping more than 7 percent and Zip is tumbling almost 10 percent.

Gold miners are lower. Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are losing more than 6 percent each, while Resolute Mining is slipping almost 8 percent, Newmont is down more than 3 percent and Genesis Minerals is declining more than 4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ Banking are declining more than 4 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing almost 4 percent each. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.699 on Monday.