Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, adding to the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to stay below the 8,000 mark, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks. Energy stocks were the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 47.00 points or 0.59 percent to 7,967.50, after touching a high of 7,975.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 49.00 points or 0.60 percent to 8,174.20. Australian stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is advancing more than 5 percent and Fortescue Metals is gaining more than 1 percent, while BHP Group and Rio Tinto are adding almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is down almost 1 percent, Santos is losing more than 1 percent and Woodside Energy is declining almost 2 percent, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.3 percent.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global is adding almost 2 percent, Appen is surging 6.5 percent, Zip is advancing almost 6 percent and Xero is up almost 1 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is down almost 1 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 1 percent, Northern Star Resources is edging up 0.1 percent, Resolute Mining is adding almost 4 percent and Newmont is advancing more than 3 percent, while Gold Road Resources is losing almost 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.636 on Thursday.