Australian Market Slightly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slightly lower on Monday, extending the losses in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is staying below the 9,000.00 mark, with weakness in iron ore miners, energy and technology stocks partially offset by gains in gold miners and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 12.70 points or 0.14 percent to 8,960.40, after hitting a low of 8,948.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 14.00 points or 0.15 percent to 9,229.00. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Friday.

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

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is edging down 0.4 percent and Woodside Energy is losing more than 1 percent, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.4 percent. Beach energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is declining almost 1 percent, WiseTech Global is losing more than 3 percent and Xero is down more than 2 percent, while Zip is gaining more than 2 percent. Appen is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources is surging almost 4 percent, Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.5 percent and Evolution Mining is advancing more than 3 percent, while Newmont and Resolute Mining are adding almost 2 percent each.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is edging down 0.3 percent, while Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

In other news, shares in RPMGlobal are skyrocketing more than 23 percent after it agreed to an exclusivity period with Caterpillar following receipt of a non-binding proposal to acquire all shares and options for $5 per share.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.655 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved back to the downside during trading on Friday after trending higher over the past few sessions. The major averages all moved lower on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq posting a particularly steep loss.

The major averages ended the day off their lows of the session but still in negative territory. The Nasdaq slumped 249.61 points or 1.2 percent to 21,455.55, the S&P 500 slid 41.60 points or 0.6 percent to 6,460.26 and the Dow dipped 92.02 points or 0.2 percent to 45,544.88.

The major European markets also all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index declined by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on concerns on overproduction concerns as OPEC recently agreed to increase crude production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.60 or 0.93 percent at $64.00 per barrel.