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The Australian stock market is maintaining its early losses in mid-market moves on Friday, extending 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 8,700 level, with weakness in mining, energy and technology<\/span> stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.<\/p>\n The benchmark S&P\/ASX 200 Index is losing 44.70 points or 0.51 percent to 8,657.30, after hitting a low of 8,639.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 56.00 points or 0.63 percent to 8,841.00. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.<\/p>\n Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing more than 1 percent, BHP Group is declining almost 1 percent, Fortescue is edging down 0.5 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping almost 2 percent.<\/p>\n Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Origin Energy are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Beach energy is losing almost 1 percent. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.3 percent.<\/p>\n Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent and Zip is adding more than 1 percent. Xero is losing more than 3 percent, while WiseTech Global and Appen are declining more than 2 percent each.<\/p>\n Among the big four banks, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging down 0.4 percent.<\/p>\n Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are losing almost 1 percent each, while Newmont is down more than 1 percent and Genesis Minerals is edging down 0.3 percent. Resolute Mining is edging up 0.4 percent.<\/p>\n In other news, shares in Meeka Metals are tumbling almost 26 percent after announcing it raised $40 million fresh equity, which will enable the gold developer to pay a $10 million deferred payment due for an April acqusition.<\/p>\n Shares in Healius Ltd. are jumping almost 10 percent after announcing the sale of Agilex Biolabs to Novotech for $160 million.<\/p>\n In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.701 on Friday. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n