Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market moves on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 8,700 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in gold miners and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 30.30 points or 0.35 percent to 8,713.10, after touching a high of 8,734.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 35.10 points or 0.39 percent to 9,032.00. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is losing more than 2 percent and Fortescue is edging down 0.4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is declining almost 2 percent, Woodside Energy is down more than 1 percent, Origin Energy is slipping almost 1 percent and Beach energy is losing more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent, Xero is adding almost 1 percent and Appen is advancing almost 3 percent, while Zip and WiseTech Global are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ Banking are losing more than 1 percent each, while National Australia bank and Commonwealth Bank are down almost 1 percent each. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 2 percent, Resolute Mining is adding almost 2 percent, Northern Star Resources is edging up 0.4 percent, Newmont is advancing 4.5 percent and Genesis Minerals is up more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in 4D Medical are soaring more than 14 percent after announcing another major contract win with UC San Diego Health, a pre-eminent health system in the US, to use its CT:VQ technology for clinical use in lung imaging.

Shares in Island Pharmaceuticals are skyrocketing more than 17 percent after the biotechnology company secured patent protection in the US for the use of one of its compounds Galidesivir in the treatment of filoviridae viruses.

Shares in Greatland Resources are surging almost 7 percent after the release of upbeat operational and financial results.

In economic news, Australia's annual inflation slowed to 3.4 percent in November 2025 from 3.8 percent in October, below market forecasts of 3.7 percent, and remaining above the RBA's 2 to 3 percent target. It marked the lowest inflation since August.

Meanwhile, the total number of building permits issued in Australia in was up a seasonally adjusted 15.2 percent on month in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at 18,406. That beat expectations for an increase of 2.0 percent following the 6.1 percent contraction in October. On a yearly basis, building permits jumped 20.2 percent after slipping 2.2 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.673 on Wednesday.