Australian Market Trims Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market in trimming its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, recouping some of the losses in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,300 level, with gains in mining and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 32.30 points or 0.39 percent to 8,273.00, after touching a high of 8,300.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 35.50 points or 0.42 percent to 8,512.80. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and are adding almost 1 percent, BHP Group is edging up 0.4 percent and Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 1 percent, while Mineral Resources are losing more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos is edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each. Beach energy is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Xero is edging down 0.2 percent, Zip is declining more than 4 percent, WiseTech Global is down more than 2 percent and Appen is tumbling more than 9 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging up 0.3 percent each, while National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each. Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Newmont are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Evolution Mining is advancing almost 2 percent, Resolute Mining is surging more than 4 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.4 percent.

In other news, shares in Eagers Automotive are soaring more than 20 percent after the car dealership group said had outperformed its market despite a 25 per cent slide in profit.

Shares in Ramsay Health Care are jumping almost 13 percent after Australia's largest private hospital operator appointed Goldman Sachs to advise on a potential sale of its 52.8 percent controlling stake in European business Santé, which had been pushed by shareholders.

Shares in IDP Education are diving almost 11 percent after earnings tumbled by 40 percent due to a contraction in the international student market.

Shares in Medibank are soaring almost 11 percent after it reported higher interim net profit and hiked its dividend 8.3 percent.

Shares in Qantas are advancing almost 4 percent after the airline handed down a $1.4 billion interim profit and elected to return money to shareholders via a special dividend rather than increasing its buyback program.

In economic news, the total value of new capital expenditure in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2024, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - coming in at A$43.961 billion. That missed forecasts for an increase of 0.6 percent following the 1.1 percent gain in the previous three months. On a yearly basis, capex was up 0.6 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.631 on Thursday.