Australian Market Doubles Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is doubling its early gains in mid-market moves on Friday, extending the slight gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,800 level, with gains in gold miners and financial stocks partially offset weakness in iron ore miner stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 109.60 points or 1.26 percent to 8,834.10, after touching a high of 8,845.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 106.10 points or 1.19 percent to 9,037.00. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing almost 1 percent and Fortescue is declining more than 2 percent, while Mineral Resources and BHP Group are edging up 0.2 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy and Woodside Energy are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Santos is edging up 0.1 percent. Beach energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent and Xero is edging up 0.3 percent, while Zip is edging down 0.2 percent and Appen is losing more than 1 percent. WiseTech Global is flat.

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

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources is surging almost 7 percent, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 4 percent, Newmont is advancing almost 4 percent and Resolute Mining is adding almost 2 percent. Genesis Minerals is soaring more than 10 percent after it met FY26 production guidance and advanced growth projects.

In other news, shares in Boss Energy are surging more than 6 percent after the company announced that it has achieved its revised full year FY 2026 uranium production guidance.

In economic news, the services sector in Australia moved into expansion territory in June, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Friday with a services PMI score of 50.5. That's up from 48.7 in May and it moves above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the composite index improved to 50.4 in June from 48.7 in May.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.694 on Friday.