Australian Market Sharply Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is sharply extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Wednesday after opening in the red, adding to the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving up to near the 8,800 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in gold miners and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in iron ore miners and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 75.40 points or 0.87 percent to 8,784.70, after touching a high of 8,797.30 and a low of 8,696.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 77.80 points or 0.88 percent to 8,964.40. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources and Fortescue are adding more than 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is up almost 1 percent, Santos is adding more than 1 percent, Beach energy is gaining more than 3 percent and Origin Energy is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent, WiseTech Global is edging up 0.4 percent and Zip is adding more than 1 percent, while Xero is losing almost 1 percent and Appen is declining almost 2 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Genesis Minerals and Evolution Mining are adding more than 1 percent each, while Newmont and Resolute Mining are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each. Northern Star Resources is surging almost 7 percent after reports that South Africa's Gold Field was considering a sweetening its offer for the company.

In other news, shares in Lindian Resources are plunging more than 23 percent after re-emerging from a trading halt. It confirmed that the ban on mining companies exporting raw materials has not affected its flagship Kangankunde project in Malawi. Shares in DhroneShield are jumping more than 10 percent after it announced that its US subsidiary has been awarded a 3-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract by the US Army, with a ceiling value of US$500 million.

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