Australian Market Swings To Modest Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is swinging to modest gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, extending the slight gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,700 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and financial stocks.

Traders also remain cautious ahead of the release of inflation data tomorrow, which will have an impact on the outlook for interest rates.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 27.50 points or 0.31 percent to 8,837.40, after hitting a low of 8,773.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 28.70 points or 0.32 percent to 8,955.30. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is gaining more than 2 percent and Fortescue is edging up 0.3 percent, while BHP Group and Mineral Resources are advancing almost 3 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining more than 2 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each. Origin Energy is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 2 percent, Xero is declining almost 2 percent and WiseTech Global is down almost 1 percent, while Zip is surging more than 6 percent and Appen is gaining almost 4 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Newmont are gaining almost 1 percent each, Northern Star Resources is adding more than 1 percent, Resolute Mining is advancing more than 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is edging up 0.5 percent.

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

In other news, Shares in Brightstar Resources are tumbling more than 5 percent after announcing a $82 million single-tranche capital raising/placement to fund its Sandstone gold exploration and development program in Western Australia.

Shares in SCX.ai are surging almost 9 percent after the sovereign artificial intelligence inference company was selected as an Australian launch partner in the SpaceX Super Intelligence Partner Network.

Shares in Star Entertainment are soaring more than 17 percent following a positive first-quarter trading update and turnaround report released ahead of its Annual General Meeting.

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