Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market moves on Wednesday, adding to the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving well above the 8,950 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in mining and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 73.30 points or 0.82 percent to 8,972.70, after touching a high of 8,989.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 70.50 points or 0.77 percent to 9,279.00. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Mineral Resources is gaining more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy and Santos are losing almost 1 percent each, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent. Beach energy is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent and WiseTech Global is adding almost 2 percent, while Appen is losing more than 1 percent and Xero is edging down 0.1 percent. Zip is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking, Westpac and National Australia bank are all gaining almost 2 percent each. Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Newmont are adding more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is edging up 0.2 percent and Genesis Minerals is gaining almost 2 percent. Evolution Mining is losing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Wednesday.