Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,800.00 level, with gains in mining and technology stocks and a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 65.90 points or 0.75 percent to 8,835.60, after touching a high of 8,834.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 77.90 points or 0.86 percent to 9,109.60. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Mineral Resources is surging almost 6 percent. Oil stocks are mixed. Santos is edging up 0.2 percent and Woodside Energy is gaining more than 1 percent, while Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent. Beach energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is surging almost 7 percent, Zip is advancing more than 5 percent, Appen is gaining almost 4 percent and WiseTech Global is adding more than 4 percent, while Xero is flat.

Gold miners are higher. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are adding more than 3 percent each, while Resolute Mining is rising almost 3 percent, Newmont are gaining almost 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is advancing more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.4 percent, while Westpac is gaining almost 1 percent and ANZ Banking is adding almost 2 percent. National Australia Bank is flat.

In other news, shares in Monadelphous Group are climbing almost 9 percent after the engineering contractor told investors it expects half-year revenue of about $1.5 billion, driven by strong demand across construction, energy, and infrastructure projects.

Shares in DroneShield are also jumping almost 9 percent after it secured $7.6 million in new contracts to supply handheld counter-drone systems to the US government, with delivery and payment expected between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Monday.