Australian shares experienced notable declines on Wednesday, continuing a losing streak for the seventh consecutive session. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped, maintaining a position just above the 7,700 mark, influenced by mixed signals from Wall Street. Across various sectors, mining and financial stocks exhibited significant weakness.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell by 58.40 points, or 0.75%, to 7,708.30, having earlier touched a low of 7,696.00. Meanwhile, the broader All Ordinaries Index declined by 55.10 points, or 0.69%, to 7,979.80. On Tuesday, Australian markets had also closed with slight losses.
Among the major mining companies, Rio Tinto declined by over 1%, and Fortescue Metals decreased by nearly 2%, while BHP Group showed a marginal increase of 0.1%. Mineral Resources remained flat.
The performance of oil stocks was mixed. Woodside Energy saw a slight uptick of 0.1%, and Beach Energy gained nearly 2%. In contrast, Origin Energy and Santos each decreased by 0.1% to 0.2%.
In the technology sector, Block (the owner of Afterpay) and WiseTech Global both decreased by almost 1%, while Xero saw a slight decline of 0.3%. Zip experienced a small increase of 0.2%, and Appen gained nearly 1%.
The big four banks—Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank, and ANZ Banking—each fell by over 1%.
Among gold miners, Newmont edged up by 0.4%, and Resolute Mining advanced by over 4%. However, Evolution Mining, Northern Star Resources, and Gold Road Resources each saw declines ranging from 0.2% to 0.5%.
In other developments, shares of respirator company Fisher & Paykel surged by 6%, driven by optimism regarding its 2025 net profit outlook, despite being impacted by three "abnormal items" in 2024.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar traded at $0.664 on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq and the Dow exhibited mixed performances throughout Tuesday. Despite an early divergence, the Nasdaq managed to rebound and close at a new record high. The Nasdaq finished up by 99.09 points, or 0.6%, to 17,019.88. The S&P 500 saw a minor increase of 1.32 points, or less than 0.1%, to 5,306.04, while the Dow fell by 216.73 points, or 0.6%, to 38,852.86.
Meanwhile, European markets also trended downwards. The German DAX Index declined by 0.5%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index dropped by 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively.
Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday amid expectations that U.S. demand would increase during the driving season and that OPEC would extend production cuts into the next quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for July settled higher by $2.11, or 2.7%, at $79.83 per barrel.
