Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, adding to the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving well above the 8,750.00 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks. Energy stocks are the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 72.10 points or 0.83 percent to 8,788.70, after touching a high of 8,793.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 65.70 points or 0.74 percent to 8,943.40. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is advancing almost 3 percent, Rio Tinto is gaining more than 1 percent, Mineral Resources is adding more than 2 percent and Fortescue is up almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy and Santos are losing almost 1 percent each, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.4 percent and Beach energy is declining almost 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is advancing more than 3 percent and Zip is adding more than 4 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are gaining almost 3 percent each. Appen is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Resolute Mining and Evolution Mining are adding almost 2 percent each, while Genesis Minerals and Newmont are gaining almost 1 percent each. Northern Star Resources is advancing more than 2 percent.

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

In other news, shares in Maas Group are tumbling almost 10 percent on the failed Firmus IPO. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.698 on Monday.