Australian Market Trims Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, but extending the gains in the previous three sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,000 mark, with gains in financial, energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 40.40 points or 0.51 percent to 7,977.30, after touching a high of 7,994.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 42.40 points or 0.52 percent to 8,200.30. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging down 0.5 percent, Mineral Resources is losing almost 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is declining almost 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is edging up 0.3 percent.

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

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

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star resources is edging down 0.5 percent and Newmont is declining almost 1 percent, while Evolution Mining is adding almost 1 percent, Resolute Mining is gaining almost 4 percent and Gold Road Resources is soaring almost 15 percent after rejecting an unsolicited $3.3 billion bid from rival Gold Fields.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining almost 1 percent, while ANZ Banking, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.629 on Tuesday.