Australian Market Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

The Australian stock market is extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday, adding to the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling well below the 8,800 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by tumbling mining, energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 38.70 points or 0.44 percent to 8,775.00, after hitting a low of 8,733.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 60.30 points or 0.66 percent to 9,037.90. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent and Rio Tinto is declining more than 2 percent, while Mineral Resources and Fortescue are tumbling almost 4 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is losing almost 1 percent and Beach energy is declining more than 2 percent, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent. Woodside Energy is flat.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 2 percent, Zip is slipping more than 4 percent and Appen is sliding more than 5 percent, while Xero and WiseTech Global are declining almost 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ Banking are edging down 0.1 percent each, while National Australia bank is gaining almost 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is adding more than 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is declining more than 2 percent, Newmont is down more than 1 percent, Northern Star Resources is slipping almost 2 percent, Genesis Minerals is losing more than 3 percent and Resolute Mining is tumbling more than 7 percent after acknowledging that the situation in Mali “continues to be unpredictable.” The Syama gold mine in Mali is one of Resolute’s key assets.

In economic news, the service sector in Australia continued to expand in October, and at a slightly faster rate, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Wednesday with a PMI score of 52.5. That’s up marginally from 52.4 in September, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.648 on Wednesday.

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