Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, reversing the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well below the 8,850 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining, energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 31.70 points or 0.36 percent to 8,879.00, after hitting a low of 8,847.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 29.30 points or 0.33 percent to 9,000.70. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.2 percent and Mineral Resources is gaining almost 1 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue are edging down 0.4 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Santos are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is advancing more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.4 percent, Zip is advancing more than 4 percent and Appen is surging almost 8 percent, while Xero and WiseTech Global are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are gaining more than 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is advancing almost 2 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Genesis Minerals are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is advancing more than 3 percent and Newmont is edging up 0.4 percent. Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.4 percent.

In other news, shares in Mesoblast Are surging more than 13 percent following the release of strong activity report for the first fiscal quarter, with strong revenue growth.

Shares in Champion Iron are tumbling almost 16 percent on reporting downbeat second-quarter and half-yearly financial results, which revealed a sharply widened net loss.

In economic news, Australia's export prices increased 1.4 percent on quarter in the third quarter of 2026, following a 1.1 percent rise in the previous quarter, marking the fourth consecutive quarterly increase. It was the fastest increase since the fourth quarter of 2025. Annually, export prices rose 6.3 percent in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Australia's import prices fell 1.1 percent on quarter in the third quarter of 2026, reversing a 5.7 percent increase in the second quarter and missing market expectations for a 1.3 percent rise. The decline was the first since the third quarter of 2025.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.705 on Thursday.