Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, reversing the slight losses in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying a tad below the 7,800 level, with gains mining and energy stocks amid spiking commodity prices, partially offset by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 37.00 points or 0.48 percent to 7,795.90, after touching a high of 7,796.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 37.10 points or 0.47 percent to 7,998.80. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are advancing more than 2 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.3 percent and BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is surging more than 5 percent, Santos is gaining almost 3 percent, Origin Energy is edging up 0.5 percent and Woodside Energy is advancing more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.3 percent, while WiseTech Global is losing almost 3 percent, Appen is declining more than 3 percent, Zip is slipping more than 1 percent and Xero is down almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are adding almost 1 percent each, while Evolution Mining is gaining more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is surging almost 3 percent. Newmont is edging down 0.5 percent.

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