Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market moves on Friday, extending the sharp gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,650 level, with gains in financial and mining stocks partially offset by weakness in energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 45.30 points or 0.53 percent to 8,667.00, after touching a high of 8,674.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 47.40 points or 0.54 percent to 8,888.20. Australian stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is advancing more than 2 percent, BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 1 percent, while Fortescue is edging down 0.5 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are down almost 1 percent each, while Beach energy is losing more than 1 percent. Santos is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is declining almost 3 percent, Xero is down almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is edging down 0.5 percent, while Zip is gaining more than 1 percent and Appen is jumping almost 15 percent after reaffirming its full-year guidance on steady AI demand.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking is adding almost 1 percent and Westpac is gaining more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources and Resolute Mining are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Evolution Mining and Genesis Minerals are gaining more than 3 percent each. Newmont is advancing almost 2 percent.

In other news, shares in Guzman y Gomez skyrocketing more than 17 percent after the fast food operator abruptly exited the US market, announcing it would shut its Chicago restaurants immediately after the business failed to meet financial benchmarks. However, this will not affect its full-year dividend.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.714 on Friday.