Australian Market Doubles Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is doubling its early gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, reversing some of the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,600 level, with gains in iron ore miners, financial, technology and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 68.00 points or 0.80 percent to 8,583.70, after touching a high of 8,585.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 67.30 points or 0.77 percent to 8,809.20. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Friday ahead of a holiday on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent, while Fortescue Metals is adding amost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is surging almost 6 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos are advancing almost 1 percent each. Beach energy is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is advancing more than 3 percent and Zip is surging more than 7 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are gaining almost 1 percent each. Appen is losing almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining and Newmont are losing almost 4 percent each, while Northern Star resources and Gold Road Resources are edging down 0.2 to 0.3 percent each. Resolute Mining is declining almost 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is gaining more than 1 percent. In other news, shares in Monash IVF are plummeting almost 24 percent after reporting its second IVF embryo incident. In economic news, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index rose 0.5 percent month-on-month to 92.6 in June, its fourth gain this year, driven by the rate cut in May and signs of easing inflation. However, this is a sharp slowdown from the 2.2 percent gain in May.

Meanwhile, Australia's NAB Business Confidence Index rose to 2 in May 2025 from -1 in April, turning positive for the first time since January and marking its highest level in four months.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.652 on Tuesday.