Australian Market Sharply Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is sharply expending its early losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 8,950 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as domestic inflation jumped higher-than-expected, with weakness in financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in gold miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 78.10 points or 0.87 percent to 8,934.40, after hitting a low of 8,924.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 70.10 points or 0.75 percent to 9,225.70. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Mineral Resources are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is edging up 0.3 percent. Fortescue is edging down 0.1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy is losing almost 1 percent and Santos is edging down 0.2 percent, while Beach energy is edging up 0.4 percent and Origin Energy is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Appen is declining more than 3 percent, Xero is losing almost 2 percent and Zip is down more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia bank are losing almost 2 percent each, while ANZ Banking is down almost 1 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining almost 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is advancing almost 4 percent, Newmont is adding almost 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is edging up 0.4 percent, while Resolute Mining is declining almost 4 percent.

In other news, shares in Boss Energy are jumping almost 17 percent after the US pledge of US$80 billion to expand nuclear reactor purchases. The company's Honeymoon Uranium Project also reported record quarterly production.

In economic news, Australia's monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.5 percent on year in September 2025, up from 3.0 percent in August and above expectations of a 3.1 percent increase. This also marked the highest inflation reading since July 2024.

Annual inflation rate jumped to 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2025 from 2.1 percent in the second quarter, marking the highest figure since the second quarter of 2024 and surpassing market estimates of 3.0 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.659 on Wednesday.