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 gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,900 level, with gains in energy and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 39.10 points or 0.44 percent to 8,930.90, after touching a high of 8,992.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 34.60 points or 0.38 percent to 9,047.20. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, and BHP Group is edging up 0.3 percent. Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are losing almost 2 percent each, while Fortescue is declining almost 1 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent and Xero is losing almost 1 percent, while Zip is slipping almost 5 percent, Appen is plunging almost 17 percent and WiseTech Global is adding almost 1 percent.

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

Gold miners are mostly lower. Genesis Minerals is down more than 1 percent, Evolution Mining is edging down 0.3 percent, Resolute Mining is declining more than 4 percent and Newmont is losing almost 1 percent, while Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Coles are plunging almost 12 percent after the supermarket giant reported downbeat first-quarter trading update and profit warning.

Shares in Reece are jumping almost 10 percent following the release of its first-quarter sales revenue update.

In economic news, Australia's final demand producer price index increased 1.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2026, slightly beating market forecasts for a 1.0 percent rise but slowing from a 1.3 percent increase in the previous period, which was the strongest price growth since the third quarter of 2023. On an annual basis, the PPI increased 3.6 percent, unchanged from the previous quarter.

Australia's private sector credit rose by 0.6 percent on month in September 2026, slightly exceeding market expectations for a 0.5 percent increase but matching the pace recorded in the previous two months. On an annual basis, private sector credit growth held steady at 8.4 percent, unchanged from August.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.703 on Friday.