Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is notably lower on Thursday after closing flat in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying well below the 8,100 level, with weakness in mining and technology stocks, partially offset by gains financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 31.90 points or 0.40 percent to 8,039.50, after hitting a low of 8,024.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 32.50 points or 0.39 percent to 8,258.80. Australian stocks ended flat on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is edging down 0.4 percent and BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent, while Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.2 percent. Mineral Resources is plummeting more than 11 percent after skipping final dividend for the first time in more than a decade amid soft lithium prices.

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 3 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are down almost 1 percent each. Appen is gaining almost 1 percent and Zip is advancing more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are declining more than 1 percent each, while Newmont is edging down 0.3 percent. Northern Star Resources is edging up 0.2 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Cettire are tumbling more than 12 percent after the online fashion retailer reported a 34 percent drop in annual profit which also missed estimates.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.680 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday, with weakness in the tech sector weighing on the broader markets. With the downward move on the day, the Dow pulled back off the record closing high set on Tuesday.

The major averages climbed well off their worst levels in the latter part of the session but remained in the red. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 198.79 points or 1.1 percent to 17,556.03, the S&P 500 slid 33.62 points or 0.6 percent to 5,592.18 and the Dow fell 159.08 points or 0.4 percent to 41,091.42.

Meanwhile, European stocks moved mostly higher on the day. The German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 and the French CAC 40 Index edged up by 0.2 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices dropped Wednesday on concerns about the outlook for global oil demand, and on data showing a much smaller than expected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October sank $1.01 or 1.34 percent at $74.52 a barrel.