Australian Market Doubles Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is doubling its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,600 level, with gains in gold miners and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in iron ore miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 17.00 points or 0.20 percent to 8,609.10, after touching a high of 8,617.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 18.50 points or 0.21 percent to 8,838.20. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining more than 3 percent and Fortescue Metals is slipping almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos is gaining 1.5 percent, Origin Energy is adding almost 1 percent, Beach energy is surging almost 5 percent and Woodside Energy is advancing more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global and Xero are up almost 1 percent each, while Zip is losing almost 1 percent, Appen is down almost 4 percent and Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Newmont is adding 2.5 percent, Resolute Mining is advancing more than 3 percent and Evolution Mining is rising almost 2 percent.

In other news, shares in Cettire are tumbling more than 30 percent after the online luxury products retailer released another bleak trading update, with sales and margins lower than expected for the year-to-date period. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.649 on Thursday.