Australian Market Back In The Green In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is back in the green in mid-market trading on Friday after briefly slipping in to the red, also adding to the slight gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying above the 8,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 1.70 points or 0.02 percent to 8,328.70, after touching a high of 8,346.80 and low of 8,314.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 5.90 points or 0.07 percent to 8,565.10. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is adding almost 1 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing more than 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is gaining almost 2 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos and Origin Energy are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Beach energy is adding almost 1 percent. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block and Xero are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Appen is gaining almost 5 percent. Zip is losing more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is slipping almost 1 percent, while Westpac, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are losing more than 1 percent each. Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining more than 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is adding almost 1 percent, while Newmont and Resolute Mining are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each. Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.621 on Friday.