Australian Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading notably lower on Thursday, reversing some of the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is falling to near the 8,900 level, with weakness in mining and technology stocks partially offset by gains in energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 38.70 points or 0.43 percent to 8,913.10, after hitting a low of 8,904.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 48.50 points or 0.53 percent to 9,117.20. Australian stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are declining more than 2 percent each, while Fortescue is down almost 2 percent and BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Origin Energy are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Santos is adding more than 2 percent and Woodside Energy is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block losing more than 3 percent, Zip is tumbling almost 7 percent and Appen is declining almost 3 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are slipping more than 5 percent each.

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

Among gold miners, Newmont is declining more than 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is down almost 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is slipping more than 4 percent, while Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are losing almost 3 percent each.

In other news, shares in Orora are tumbling more than 15 percent after the company slashed its FY26 EBIT guidance for its Saverglass division due to the ongoing Middle East conflict.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.704 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher at the start of trading on Wednesday and continued to turn in a strong performance throughout the session. With the surge, the major averages ended the day at their best closing levels in about a month.

The major averages all showed substantial moves to the upside after ending Tuesday's trading narrowly mixed. The Dow spiked 1,325.46 points or 2.9 percent to 47,909.92, the Nasdaq surged 617.15 points or 2.8 percent to 22,635.00 and the S&P 500 shot up 165.96 points or 2.5 percent to 6,782.81.

The major European markets also showed substantial moves to the upside on the day. The German DAX Index spiked by 5.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index surged by 4.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 2.5 percent.

Crude oil prices went into a tailspin Wednesday as supply-disruption risks dissipated following a two-week ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was down $18.15 or 16.07 percent at $94.80 per barrel.