Australian Market Swings To Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is swinging to 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 staying above the 8,750 level, with gains in iron miners and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miner and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 18.70 points or 0.21 percent to 8,791.70, after hitting a low of 8,746.30 and a high of 8,792.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 16.60 points or 0.18 percent to 9,080.00. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent, while Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are adding more than 1 percent each. Fortescue is edging down 0.1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Origin Energy is losing almost 2 percent and Woodside Energy is edging down 0.4 percent, while Santos and Beach energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is slipping 3.5 percent, Zip is down almost 1 percent and Appen is declining almost 3 percent, while Xero and WiseTech Global are losing more than 1 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while National Australia Bank is gaining almost 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Resolute Mining is declining more than 1 percent, Evolution Mining is losing almost 2 percent and Northern Star Resources is down almost 1 percent. Gold Road Resources and Newmont are flat.

In other news, shares in Vulcan Energy Resources are jumping more than 15 percent after it signed a major $179 million contract with Turboden and ROM Technik to construct a geothermal power plant near Landau, Germany, with capacity to support 500,000 electric vehicles annually, a crucial step in its Phase One Lionheart Project.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.654 on Friday.