Asian Markets Trade Mostly Lower
(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Tuesday, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid rising prospects of the Federal Reserve resorting to aggressive policy tightening to combat rising inflation. Traders remain cautious ahead of t
(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Tuesday, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid rising prospects of the Federal Reserve resorting to aggressive policy tightening to combat rising inflation. Traders remain cautious ahead of this week's key inflation report from the U.S. which will offer cues on the interest rate outlook. The Asian markets closed mostly higher on Monday.
Market participants also await a European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting on Thursday for confirmation whether the central bank will raise rates at the July 21 policy meeting.
The Australian stock market is significantly lower on Tuesday, extending the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling below the 7,200 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged largely by gold miners, financials and technology stocks. Traders are cautious as they brace for back-to-back interest rate hikes at the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary policy meeting later in the day.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 63.20 points or 0.88 percent to 7,143.10, after hitting a low of 7,137.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 66.90 points or 0.90 percent to 7,366.20. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Monday.
Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is gaining almost 1 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing almost 2 percent and OZ Minerals is adding more than 1 percent, while Fortescue Metals is losing almost 1 percent. BHP Group is flat.
Oil stocks are lower, with Beach energy and Origin Energy edging down 0.5 percent each, while Santos is losing more than 1 percent. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.
Among tech stocks, Xero is losing more than 1 percent and Zip is sliding almost 4 percent, while Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are slipping almost 2 percent each. Appen is edging up 0.5 percent.
Gold miners are weak. Newcrest Mining and Resolute Mining are losing more than 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are down almost 1 percent each. Gold Road Resources is slipping more than 2 percent.
