Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market trading on Wednesday, and extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,400 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and energy stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 47.50 points or 0.57 percent to 8,421.50, after touching a high of 8,441.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 55.50 points or 0.64 percent to 8,688.90. Australian stocks ended notably higher on Tuesday.

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

Oil stocks are higher. Woodside Energy is up 1.5 percent and Origin Energy is gaining almost 1 percent, while Santos and Beach energy are adding more than 1 percent each.

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

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Westpac is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining, Gold Road Resources, Resolute Mining and Newmont are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is adding more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Tower are surging almost 6 percent after the insurer upgraded its underlying net profit after tax guidance.

Shares in Insignia Financial jumped more than 7 percent after the financial services firm received a A$3.07 billion takeover offer from Brookfield.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.625 on Wednesday.