Australian Market Extends Gains In Mid-market Moves

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its gains in mid-market trading on Wednesday, reversing the slight losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,450 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by technology, energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 77.00 points or 0.92 percent to 8,476.10, after touching a high of 8,480.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 82.90 points or 0.96 percent to 8,727.40. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging down 0.2 percent and Rio Tinto is declining almost 1 percent, while Mineral Resources is gaining 1.5 percent and Fortescue Metals is adding more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are higher. Woodside Energy is gaining almost 2 percent and Beach energy is adding more than 1 percent, while Santos and Origin Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

In the tech space, Appen is gaining more than 4 percent, WiseTech Global is advancing almost 4 percent, Xero is adding 2.5 percent and Zip is up more than 2 percent. Afterpay owner Block is in a trading halt.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is adding almost 1 percent and National Australia Bank is edging up 0.4 percent, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining more than 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining almost 2 percent, Resolute Mining is advancing almost 4 percent and Northern Star Resources is adding more than 1 percent, while Gold Road Resources and Newmont are up almost 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in Boss Energy are soaring almost 11 percent after the uranium miner revealed a strong operational performance from its Honeymoon project.

In economic news, consumer prices in Australia were up a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2024, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - shy of forecasts for 0.3 percent but unchanged from the previous quarter. On an annualized basis, inflation rose 2.4 percent - also missing forecasts for 2.5 percent and down from 2.8 percent in Q3.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.624 on Wednesday.