Australian Market Maintains Early Losses In Mid-market

The Australian stock market is maintaining its early losses in mid-market trading on Wednesday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling well below the 8,300 level, with weakness across most sectors led by mining amid tumbling metal prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 24.80 points or 0.30 percent to 8,227.10, after hitting a low of 8,210.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 34.10 points or 0.40 percent to 8,463.90. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 1 percent, Fortescue Metals is slipping almost 5 percent, Rio Tinto is declining almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is down more than 3 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy is gaining more than 3 percent and Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent, while Santos is edging down 0.3 percent and Beach energy is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Zip is edging up 0.2 percent and WiseTech Global is gaining almost 2 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is slipping almost 4 percent, Xero is declining almost 1 percent and Appen is tumbling almost 32 percent after downbeat full-year results.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is adding almost 1 percent, Westpac are edging up 0.4 percent and ANZ Banking is gaining more than 1 percent, while National Australia Bank is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among gold miners, Resolute Mining and Evolution Mining are declining more than 2 percent each, while Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are losing almost 3 percent each. Newmont is slipping almost 2 percent.

In other news, shares in Flight Centre are tumbling almost 12 percent despite the travel booking service reporting a 7 percent growth in underlying profit as it set a record for productivity through automation.

Shares in Bapcor are jumping almost 15 percent after the car parts provider said costs and savings were expected to come in near the top end of a cost-cutting target range in 2024-25.

Shares in Worley are soaring almost 11 percent after the company announced a $500 million share buyback and reported a 72 percent jump in interim net profit.

Shares in PointsBet are skyrocketing more than 31 percent after the technology company received two takeover offers to buy the company.

Shares in Kelsian Group shed a fifth of its value, tumbling almost 19 percent after the company posted a 7.9 per cent fall in underlying profit.

In economic news, the value of total construction work done in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2024, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday – coming in at A$73.936 billion. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 1.0 percent and down from 1.6 percent in the three months prior. On a yearly basis, construction work was up 1.8 percent.

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

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