Australian Market Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading sharply lower on Friday, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling below the psychological 8,000 mark, with weakness across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 105.00 points or 1.30 percent to 7,989.70, after hitting a low of 7,987.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 103.20 points or 1.24 percent to 8,223.20. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are edging down 0.1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is losing almost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is down more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy, Woodside Energy and Santos are losing more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is declining 1.5 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is losing almost 2 percent, Xero is declining 2.5 percent, Zip is slipping almost 4 percent and WiseTech Global is down more than 1 percent, while Appen is gaining 1.5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is declining more than 4 percent, National Australia Bank is down more than 1 percent, Westpac is losing almost 3 percent and ANZ Banking is slipping 2.5 percent. Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is losing almost 2 percent, Resolute Mining is declining more than 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is down almost 1 percent, Newmont is edging down 0.2 percent and Gold Road Resources is slipping more than 2 percent.

In other news, shares in Insignia Financial are jumping more than 11 percent after private equity houses Bain and CC Capital sweetened their bids for the wealth manager to $5 a share, valuing it at around $3.4 billion.

Star Entertainment is still in a trading halt, but confirmed talks to sell Brisbane casino.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.633 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial move back to the downside during trading on Thursday after recovering from early weakness to end the previous session sharply higher. With the steep drops on the day, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 tumbled to five and four-month closing lows, respectively.

The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, lingering near their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq plummeted 483.48 points or 2.6 percent to 18,069.26, the S&P 500 plunged 104.11 points or 1.8 percent at 5,738.52 and the Dow slumped 427.51 points or 1.0 percent to 42,579.08.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index shot up by 1.5 percent.

Crude oil prices settled slightly higher on Thursday after some wild swings amid uncertainty about the outlook for oil demand, and on possible excess supply in the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled at $66.36 a barrel, up $0.05 percent from previous close.