Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, but reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is staying above the 8,800.00 level, with gains in iron ore miners, energy and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 31.00 points or 0.35 percent to 8,838.10, after touching a high of 8,852.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 32.80 points or 0.36 percent to 9,109.40. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are gaining 1.5 percent each, while BHP Group is advancing 1.5 percent and Mineral Resources is soaring more than 10 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy, Santos and Woodside Energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Beach energy is advancing 2.5 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is tumbling almost 9 percent, Zip is losing more than 2 percent and Xero is declining almost 1 percent, while WiseTech Global is edging up 0.4 percent and Appen is gaining 2.5 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources and Newmont are declining more than 1 percent each, while Gold Road Resources down 1.5 percent each. Evolution Mining is edging up 0.5 percent and Resolute Mining is adding almost 3 percent.

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

In other news, shares in Liontown Resources are skyrocketing almost 20 percent after the lithium miner returned from a trading halt on completing a major capital raising.

Shares in DigiCo are jumping more than 9 percent after the real estate company secured the government's housing certification.

Shares in Iress are tumbling almost 11 percent after reporting downbeat s results for the half yearly period. Shares in IDP Education soaring almost 10 percent as Jefferies Australia analyst Wei Sim raised his price target on a bullish note.

Shares in JB Hi-Fi are diving almost 9 percent after long-serving chief executive Terry Smart announced his decision by to step down from the top position in October.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.652 on Monday.