Australian Market Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

The Australian market is extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Thursday, adding to the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 9,200 level, with a mixed performance across most sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 53.50 points or 0.58 percent to 9,155.90, after hitting a low of 9,141.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 54.40 points or 0.58 percent to 9,350.30. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging down 0.3 percent, Rio Tinto is losing more than 3 percent and Mineral Resources is declining almost 2 percent, while Fortescue is gaining almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is down almost 1 percent, Beach energy is declining almost 3 percent and Santos is losing more than 1 percent, while Origin Energy is surging almost 5 percent on upbeat results.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 1 percent and Zip is declining almost 3 percent, while WiseTech Global is gaining more than 1 percent, Xero is edging up 0.2 percent and Appen is advancing more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking is gaining almost 3 percent, Westpac is edging up 0.4 percent and National Australia Bank is adding almost 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 3 percent.

Among gold miners, Genesis Minerals is declining almost 2 percent, Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is slipping more than 2 percent, while Newmont and Northern Star Resources are gaining more than 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in Cleanaway are jumping almost 16 percent after the waste management company announced it had received a $9.4 billion takeover bid from Swedish private equity group EQT Infrastructure.

Shares in ASX Ltd are surging more than 12 percent after reporting a 5 percent rise in full-year underlying profit.

Shares in IAG slipped more than 6 percent after posting a nearly 25 per cent fall in net profit in its full-year results.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.705 on Thursday.

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