The Australian stock market is extending its early losses in mid-market moves on Wednesday, after closing muted for three straight sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falling well below the 8,900 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in gold miners and financial stocks partially offset by gains in energy stocks.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 72.30 points or 0.81 percent to 8,877.10, after hitting a low of 8,860.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 72.80 points or 0.79 percent to 9,104.30. Australian stocks ended little changed on Tuesday.
Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Fortescue is down almost 1 percent, Mineral Resources is losing more than 1 percent and Rio Tinto is edging down 0.4 percent.
Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy, Beach energy and Santos are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy is edging down 0.5 percent.
In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 1 percent and Zip is declining almost 2 percent, while WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent. Xero and Appen are flat.
Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is down more than 1 percent, while National Australia bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are losing almost 1 percent each. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are slipping almost 3 percent each, while Northern Star Resources and Newmont are declining almost 2 percent each. Genesis Minerals is losing more than 2 percent.
In other news, shares in Cochlear are plummeting almost 38 percent after the medical device maker announced a massive downgrade in expected full year earnings amid weakened trading conditions for cochlear implants in developed markets in recent months.
Shares in Treasury Wine are jumping more than 14 percent after wine company announced that it is transitioning to a new regional operating model to improve efficiency. It also flagged another big restructure with the Penfolds business to no longer operate as a stand-alone division. Shares in Bank of Queensland are tumbling more than 9 percent after reporting downbeat results for the first half of 2026 on higher costs, margin pressure and restructuring, despite progress in its digital banking transformation.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.716 on Wednesday.
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Market Analysis
April 17, 2026 15:29 ET The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to raise concerns for policymakers who worry about the impact of the supply shock and high energy prices on the real economy. Producer price data and various survey results on the housing market were the main news from the U.S. this week. In Europe, industrial production data for the euro area gained attention. GDP figures out of China and the policy move by the Singapore central bank were in focus in Asia.