Australian Market Is Trimming Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, but extending 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 7,800.00 level, with gains across most sectors led by iron ore miners and technology stocks. Gold stocks are the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 49.90 points or 0.64 percent to 7,839.60, after touching a high of 7,858.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 57.20 points or 0.71 percent to 8,070.50. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent, Rio Tinto is adding more than 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 4 percent. Mineral Resources is surging almost 10 percent after UBS upgraded the stock to "Buy." Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Beach energy are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Santos is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent,Zip is advancing more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is edging up 0.3 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent, while Appen is losing almost 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is edging down 0.3 percent, while Northern Star Resources, Gold Road Resources and Newmont are losing almost 1 percent each. Resolute Mining is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are gaining more than 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging down 0.5 percent.

In other news, shares in Spartan Resources are rallying more than 9 percent after it confirmed reports of its merger with Ramelius Resources. Shares in Smartpay Holdings are skyrocketing more than 48 percent after confirming it was in takeover talks with at least two parties after its shares were smashed on the central bank's decision to put debit card surcharges under the microscope.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.633 on Monday.