Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is currently trading slightly lower on Monday, giving up some of the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,400.00 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday, with losses in technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 6.60 points or 0.09 percent to 7,742.40, after hitting a low of 7,749.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 6.50 points or 0.08 percent to 8,016.20. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is edging down 0.4 percent and Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent, while BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy is edging up 0.2 percent and Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent while Woodside Energy is declining almost 1 percent and Santos is losing more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Xero is declining almost 1 percent, Appen is losing more than 2 percent, Afterpay owner Block is slipping almost 3 percent and Zip is down almost 2 percent, while WiseTech Global is gaining almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are mixed. Gold Road Resources and Newmont are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 1 percent. Resolute Mining is declining more than 1 percent. Evolution Mining is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Westpac is losing almost 1 percent. ANZ Banking is declining almost 4 percent after The Australian Financial Review reported it is being investigated by the corporate regulator over concerns its traders manipulated the sale of government debt last year.

In other news, shares in Lendlease have fallen 4 percent after the Property group confirmed it has been hit with a $112 million tax bill from the Australian Taxation Office, connected to a tax dispute over its retirement living business.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.659 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved to the upside early in the session on Friday but showed a lack of direction over the remainder of the trading day. The major averages eventually ended the day mixed, although the Dow closed higher for the eighth consecutive session.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged down 5.40 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 16,340.87, the S&P 500 crept up 8.60 points or 0.2 percent to 5,222.68 and the Dow rose 125.08 points or 0.3 percent to a new one-month closing high of 39,512.84.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.