Australian Market Slightly Lower In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is alternating across the unchanged line and is now slightly lower in mid-market moves on Friday, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying below the 9,200 level, with weakness in financial stocks, gains in gold miners and technology stocks as well as a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 8.40 points or 0.09 percent to 9,166.90, after hitting a low of 9,158.40 and a high of 9,195.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 2.60 points or 0.03 percent to 9,406.10. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are losing almost 1 percent each, while Fortescue and Mineral Resources are gaining more than 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy and Woodside Energy are adding more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent. Santos is edging down 0.1 percent. Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is losing more than 2 percent, while Zip is soaring almost 8 percent, Appen is gaining almost 1 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent. Afterpay-owner Block is skyrocketing more than 26 percent after it decided to cut 4000 of its 10,000 employees.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking, Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are higher. Evolution Mining is advancing almost 3 percent and Genesis Minerals is rising almost 4 percent, while Resolute Mining, Northern Star Resources and Newmont are adding almost 2 percent each.

In other news, shares in Coles Group are tumbling more than 9 percent after the supermarket giant posted downbeat half-yearly results, despite higher sales and profit.

Shares in Bapcor are plummeting almost 48 percent after the auto parts company reported downbeat results for the first half and announced a highly discounted A$200 equity raising.

In economic news, overall private sector credit in Australia was up 0.5 percent on month on January, the Reserve Bank of Australia said on Friday - easing from 0.8 percent in December. On a yearly basis, overall credit jumped 7.7 percent. Broad money was up 0.6 percent on month and 7.4 percent on year.

Individually, housing credit added 0.6 percent on month and 7.0 percent on year, while personal credit gained 0.2 percent on month and 4.1 percent on year and business credit rose 0.5 percent on month and 9.4 percent on year.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.711 on Friday.