Australian Market Trims Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming early losses in mid-market moves on Friday, reversing the gains in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling to be just above the 8,200 level, with weakness across most sectors led by miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 57.30 points or 0.69 percent to 8,210.90, after hitting a low of 8,186.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 61.50 points or 0.72 percent to 8,444.60. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are declining more than 2 percent each, while BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping almost 6 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Santos is edging up 0.4 percent, while Beach energy is edging down 0.4 percent. Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are flat.

Among tech stocks, Xero is declining almost 3 percent, Zip is slipping almost 4 percent, WiseTech Global is down more than 3 percent and Appen is tumbling almost 12 percent. Afterpay-owner Block is edging up 0.2 percent.

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

In other news, shares in Star Entertainment are plummeting almost 18 percent after the casino operator said it is not sure if it can continue to trade beyond Friday, claiming a range of conditions need to be met to continue to be operational. Shares in Endeavour Group are tumbling more than 6 percent after its interim profit fell 15.1 percent, driving the retailer and hotel operator to lower its dividend by 12.6 percent.

Shares in Vista Group are soaring more than 13 percent after the data analytics provider reported upbeat earnings for 2024, as a jump in clients transitioning to its cloud solutions.

In economic news, Total credit in Australia was up 0.5 percent on month and 6.5 percent on year in January, the Reserve Bank of Australia said on Friday. Housing credit was up 0.4 percent on month and 5.6 percent on year, while personal credit was flat on month and up 2.2 percent on year and business credit climbed 0.7 percent on month and 8.8 percent on year. Broad money was up 0.3 percent on month and 5.2 percent on year.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.622 on Friday.