Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early slight gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, adding to the gains in the previous two sessions, following he broadly positive cues from European markets and lack of cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying above the 8,350 level, with slight gains in financial and energy stocks nearly offset by weakness in mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 18.70 points or 0.22 percent to 8,379.70, after touching a day's high of 8,384.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 18.60 points or 0.22 percent to 8,607.40. Australian stocks closed slightly positive on Monday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals and BHP Group are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining almost 5 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.4 percent, Beach energy is advancing almost 2 percent and Santos is gaining almost 1 percent, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.5 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block Energy is edging down 0.1 percent and Appen is declining more than 3 percent, while Xero is adding almost 1 percent, WiseTech Global is gaining more than 2 percent and Zip is edging up 0.5 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are declining almost 2 percent each, while Northern Star resources is down more than 1 percent, Newmont is losing almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac is gaining almost 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking and are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.648 on Tuesday.