Australian Market Slightly Lower

Australian stock market is slightly lower in choppy trading on Friday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 above the 7,000 mark at 14-month highs, as strong gains in gold miners and technology stocks were offset by weakness in energy and financial stocks. The cues overnight from Wall Street were broadly positive amid strong data releases and a dip in long term bond yields.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 4.40 points or 0.06 percent to 7,054.20, after touching a high of 7,066.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 1.10 points or 0.02 percent to 7,316.40. Australian markets ended higher on Thursday.

The major miners are mixed. Fortescue Metals is down more than 2 percent, while BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Rio Tinto is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among oil stocks, Woodside Petroleum is down more than 1 percent, Oil Search is losing almost 1 percent and Santos is declining more than 1 percent. Meanwhile, Beach energy is gaining almost 3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay is edging up 0.4 percent, WiseTech Global is also edging up 0.2 percent, and Appen is gaining more than 3 percent. Xero is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are all down about 0.5 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.1 percent.

Gold miners are higher after gold climbed. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Newcrest Mining and Gold Road Resources are adding almost 4 percent. Resolute Mining is up almost 3 percent.

Coca-Cola Amatil’s $10 billion takeover by Coca-Cola European Partners has got their final consent from the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office and shareholders also appear to have given the green light, with proxy votes released ahead of the company’s 10 am vote meeting showing overwhelming support for the deal.

Shares in Mineral Resources are down almost 5 percent after it downgrading its export targets for the lucrative steel-making raw material iron ore by as much as 15 percent for full year to between 17.4 million and 18 million tonnes.

Shares in Mayne Pharma are surging almost 8 percent after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its contraceptive product Nextstellis, the first new estrogen-based contraceptive to be introduced to the US market in fifty years.

Banking giant Citi has put its Australian retail banking assets on the auction block, as part of a global move to focus on businesses with greater potential for growth and higher returns.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.773 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Thursday, more than offsetting the pullback seen in the previous session. The Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs, while the Nasdaq ended the day at its best closing level in two months.

The major averages reached new highs in late-day trading before giving back some ground going into the close. The Dow jumped 305.10 points or 0.9 percent to 34,035.99, the Nasdaq soared 180.92 points or 1.3 percent to 14,038.76 and the S&P 500 surged up 45.76 points or 1.1 percent to 4,170.42.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Thursday, extending gains to a fourth straight session, continuing to ride on the recent upward revision in the global oil demand forecast by the International Energy Agency. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.31 or 0.5 percent at $63.46 a barrel.

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