Australian Market Pares Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is paring its early gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, snapping a three-session losing streak, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,400 level, with gains in mining and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 32.30 points or 0.39 percent to 8,398.20, after touching a high of 8,504.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 37.10 points or 0.43 percent to 8,589.70. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue are advancing almost 4 percent each, while Mineral Resources is jumping almost 6 percent and Rio Tinto is gaining more than 3 percent. Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy is gaining almost 2 percent, while Woodside Energy is declining almost 2 percent, Santos is slipping more than 1 percent and Beach energy is down almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is advancing more than 3 percent, while Zip and Appen are gaining almost 2 percent each. WiseTech Global and Xero are losing almost 1 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Northern Star resources are advancing almost 3 percent each, while Genesis Minerals is jumping more than 6 percent, Newmont is surging more than 5 percent and Resolute Mining is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is down almost 1 percent, Westpac is edging down 0.1 percent, ANZ Banking is gaining more than 1 percent and National Australia Bank is losing more than 1 percent.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to barely expand in March, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Tuesday with a manufacturing PMI score of 50.1. That's unchanged from the February reading and it remains just barely above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the services PMI posted a score of 46.6, down from 52.8 in February and the composite PMI fell to 47.0 from 52.4 a month earlier.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.697 on Tuesday.