The Australian stock market is modestly lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the strong gains of the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying just above the 7,300 level, ignoring the positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders digested weaker than expected local manufacturing and services data. Weakness in mining, banking and energy stocks are offsetting gains in technology stocks. The cues overnight from Wall Street were negative.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 33.20 points or 0.45 percent to 7,309.00, after hitting a low of 7,303.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 27.60 points or 0.36 percent to 7,565.10. Australian stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.
Among major miners, BHP Group and Mineral Resources are gaining almost 1 percent each, while OZ Minerals is adding more than 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.3 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.
Oil stocks are lower after crude oil prices tumbled. Oil Search, Woodside Petroleum and Beach energy are losing more than 1 percent each, while Santos is down almost 3 percent and Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent.
In the tech space, Afterpay is gaining more than 2 percent, Appen is adding more than 1 percent, Xero is edging up 0.4 percent and WiseTech Global is rising almost 2 percent.
Among the big four banks, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are all losing more than 1 percent each.
Gold miners are mostly lower as gold prices edged down overnight. Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources are edging down 0.2 percent each, while Resolute Mining is losing almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is down almost 2 percent. Evolution Mining is edging up 0.2 percent.
In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to expand in June, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from Markit Economics revealed on Wednesday, with a manufacturing PMI score of 58.4. That’s down from 60.4 in May, although it remains well above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the services PMI fell to 56.0 from 58.0 in June and the composite index slipped to 56.1 from 58.0 a month earlier.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.755 on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. With the upward move on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a new record closing high.
The major averages pulled back off their highs going into the close but remained in positive territory. The Dow rose 68.61 points or 0.2 percent to 33,945.58, the Nasdaq advanced 111.79 points or 0.8 percent to 14,253.27 and the S&P 500 climbed 21.65 points or 0.5 percent to 4,284.44.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index edged up by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil futures settled lower on Tuesday, weighed down by speculation that OPEC and its allies will agree to increase crude production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down $0.60 or 0.8 percent at $73.06 a barrel on the expiration day. WTI Crude oil futures for August, the new front-month contract, fell $0.27 or 0.4 percent at $72.85 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Australian Market Modestly Lower
2021-06-23 01:33:17
