Australian Market Trims Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, adding to the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving well above the 8,000.00 mark, with gains technology, energy and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 63.20 points or 0.79 percent to 8,031.40, after touching a high of 8,051.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 62.30 points or 0.76 percent to 8,237.40. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday ahead of the holiday on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is losing more than 1 percent and Mineral Resources is declining almost 2 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are edging down 0.2 to 0.3 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Santos are adding almost 2 percent each, while Beach energy is edging up 0.2 percent and Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 3 percent, WiseTech Global is adding more than 1 percent and Appen is edging up 0.2 percent, while Zip and Xero is advancing more than 2 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly lower Northern Star Resources is down almost 1 percent, Evolution Mining is slipping almost 3 percent, Newmont is losing almost 2 percent and Gold Road Resources is declining more than 3 percent, while Resolute Mining is gaining almost 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 2 percent each, while ANZ Banking is advancing more than 2 percent. Commonwealth Bank is flat.

In other news, shares in Brambles are slipping almost 6 percent after it trimmed its sales revenue growth forecast for the financial year to account for the impact of an uncertain market outlook on consumer demand.

Shares in Ainsworth are skyrocketing more than 32 percent after majority shareholder Novomatic said it would acquire all outstanding shares in the gaming machine manufacturer in a deal that values it at $336.8 million.

Shares in Telix are tumbling more than 5 percent after a US regulator did not approve its new drug application.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.639 on Monday.