Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, reversing the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,900 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 95.30 points or 1.08 percent to 8,941.00, after touching a high of 8,959.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 97.50 points or 1.07 percent to 9,234.10. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Mineral Resources is adding almost 3 percent and Fortescue is rising more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are higher. Beach energy and Santos are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 3 percent, Appen is jumping more than 4 percent, Zip is adding almost 2 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent, while WiseTech Global is losing more than 1 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Newmont is advancing almost 2 percent, Evolution Mining is gaining almost 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is adding almost 4 percent and Resolute Mining is up more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Dateline Resources are jumping more than 11 percent on news of an aggressive drilling program to enhance its gold and rare earth potential at its Colosseum Project.

Shares in Orthocell are soaring almost 7 percent on upbeat quarterly financial results, driven by the success of its nerve repair product Remplir.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.662 on Thursday.