Australian Market Notably Lower

The Australian stock market is notably lower on Thursday, extending the slight losses in the previous session, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling towards the 7,000 mark, with particular weakness in in mining and energy stocks amid weaker commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 33.10 points or 0.47 percent to 7,040.30, after hitting a low of 7,029.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 31.50 points or 0.43 percent to 7,246.30. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent, while Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are declining almost 1 percent each. Mineral Resources is edging up 0.1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Beach energy are losing almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy is declining more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is flat.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global and Xero are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 1 percent. Zip is losing almost 3 percent and Appen is plummeting more than 31 percent after it said it is mulling the sale of a part or whole of its business.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are losing almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each.

Among gold miners, Resolute Mining is declining more than 3 percent, Evolution Mining is losing more than 1 percent, Gold Road Resources is slipping almost 2 percent and Northern Star Resources is sliding more than 2 percent. Newmont is flat.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to contract in November, and at a faster rate, the latest survey from Judo Bank revealed on Thursday with a manufacturing PMI score of 47.7. That’s down from 48.2 in October and it moves further beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that…