Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, extending the slight gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving up to near the 8,700 level, with gains in technology stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners, energy and financial stocks.

Traders remain cautious ahead of the interest rate decision later in the day, with the Reserve Bank of Australia expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, to 4.60 percent.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 12.80 points or 0.15 percent to 8,692.50, after touching a high of 8,697.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 16.50 points or 0.19 percent to 8,867.20. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue is edging up 0.1 percent and BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is declining more than 3 percent. WiseTech Global and Xero are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Appen is advancing almost 4 percent and Zip is adding almost 3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is down almost 1 percent, Newmont is losing more than 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is declining more than 2 percent, while Genesis Minerals and Resolute Mining are edging down 0.4 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 1 percent, while National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

In other news, shares in Megaport Ltd. are jumping more than 14 percent after the tech company announced almost $1 billion in three AI infrastructure contracts through its Latitude.sh business.

Shares in Codan Ltd. are also soaring more than 16 percent after the drone components maker announced upbeat profit outlook for the December half on strong demand from drone manufacturers amid global warfare.

In economic news, Australian household spending was flat month-on-month in August 2026, following a 1.1 percent increase in the prior month and ending three consecutive months of growth. On an annual basis, household spending rose 6.8 percent, easing from 7.0 percent in July, which was the fastest growth since June 2023.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.702 on Tuesday.