Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Friday after opening slightly in the red, adding to the gains in the previous four sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving to near the 8,900 level, with gains in financial stocks and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 30.50 points or 0.34 percent to 8,892.20, after hitting a low of 8,855.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 32.10 points or 0.35 percent to 9,216.30. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while BHP Group and Mineral Resources are losing almost 1 percent each. BHP Group and Rio Tinto agreed to jointly develop up to 200 million tonnes of iron ore in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Oil stocks are weak. Santos is slipping almost 1 percent, Woodside Energy is down more than 1 percent, Origin Energy is edging down 0.4 percent and Beach energy is declining almost 2 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is losing almost 1 percent, while WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent, Zip is edging up 0.5 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent. Appen is surging more than 10 percent after it reported that 4 million performance rights lapsed on December 31, 2025.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining almost 1 percent and Westpac is adding more than 1 percent, while ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each. Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining and Genesis Minerals are losing almost 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is slipping almost 2 percent and Northern Star Resources is declining almost 2 percent. Newmont is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.670 on Friday.