Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, reversing some of the losses in the previous four sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving up to well above the 7,950.00 level, with gains across most sectors led by iron ore miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 17.60 points or 0.22 percent to 7,965.80, after touching a high of 7,978.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 17.10 points or 0.21 percent to 8,195.60. Australian stocks closed sharply lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.1 percent, Rio Tinto is advancing more than 2 percent and Mineral Resources is adding almost 2 percent, while Fortescue Metals is losing 1.5 percent. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Beach energy are advancing almost 2 percent each, while Santos is gaining almost 1 percent. Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Appen is losing almost 1 percent. Xero is gaining more than 1 percent and Zip is adding almost 1 percent.

Gold miners are mixed. Evolution Mining and Newmont are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Gold Road Resources adding almost 1 percent. Resolute Mining is losing almost 2 percent and Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.2 percent each, while ANZ Banking is gaining almost 1 percent. National Australia Bank is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.631 on Monday.