Australian Market Reverses Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is reversing its early losses 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 7,900 level, with gains in energy and financial stocks as well as mixed performance at most other sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 30.30 points or 0.38 percent to 7,949.20, after hitting a low of 7,905.10 and a high of 7,950.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 28.00 points or 0.34 percent to 8,176.90. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.1 percent. Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy, Beach energy and Santos are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Origin Energy is up almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is losing more than 1 percent and Xero is edging down 0.3 percent, while Appen and WiseTech Global are declining almost 2 percent each. Zip is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.5 percent each. Commonwealth Bank is flat. Gold miners are mixed. Evolution Mining is gaining almost 1 percent and Newmont is edging up 0.3 percent, while Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.2 percent, Gold Road Resources is losing more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is down almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Paladin Energy are tumbling almost 5 percent after temporarily closing its Langer Heinrich Mine in Namibia, owing to heavy rains impacting access to the site.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.633 on Friday.