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 to the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 8,750 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in mining and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and technology stocks.

A surprisingly softer domestic inflation report released earlier in the day strengthened expectations of a 25 basis point interest rate cut next month.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 59.80 points or 0.69 percent to 8,764.40, after hitting a low of 8,688.20 and a high of 8,768.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 56.90 points or 0.64 percent to 9,023.60. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is gaining almost 4 percent and Fortescue is adding almost 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.2 percent. BHP Group is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is down almost 1 percent, Origin Energy is edging down 0.5 percent and Beach energy is losing almost 3 percent, while Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 3 percent, WiseTech Global is down more than 1 percent, Zip is edging down 0.5 percent and Xero is edging up 0.3 percent.

Appen is tumbling almost 12 percent after the AI data services company reported downbeat second-quarter results, as ongoing uncertainty in the US AI market continues to weigh on performance.

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

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 1 percent, Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.5 percent, Northern Star Resources is adding almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing more than 4 percent, while Newmont is edging down 0.1 percent.

In other news, shares in IGO are slipping almost 7 percent as operational issues continued to impact its Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery production, with full-year production finishing below guidance.

In economic news, Australia's monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 1.9 percent on year in June 2025, easing from both May's figure and market forecasts of 2.1 percent. This marked the lowest level since March 2021 and came in below the central bank's 2 to 3 percent target range.

The CPI dropped to 2.1 percent in the second quarter of 2025 from 2.4 percent in the prior two periods, marking its lowest figure since the first quarter of 2021 and falling short of market forecasts of 2.2 percent.

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