Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Wednesday, adding the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying just below the 8,400 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in mining, financial and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 70.50 points or 0.85 percent to 8,413.80, after touching a high of 8,422.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 64.00 points or 0.75 percent to 8,637.40. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is gaining almost 1 percent and Fortescue metals is edging up 0.1 percent , while BHP Group and Rio Tinto are adding almost 1 percent each.

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block, Zip and WiseTech Global are losing more than 1 percent each, while Appen is sliding almost 7 percent and Xero is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank advancing almost 2 percent, National Australia bank is adding more than 2 percent, whike Westpac and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are surging more than 5 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is up more than 1 percent, Newmont is adding 3.5 percent and Northern Star Resources is advancing more than 3 percent.

In other news, shares in Mayne Pharma are plunging almost 31 percent after news that Cosette had raised concerns of a material change to the business's financial position since it lobbed its $672 million takeover bid.

Shares in Catapult are jumping more than 11 percent after reporting a narrower full-year loss on a 19 percent increase in revenues.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.643 on Wednesday.