Australian Market Trims Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early gains in mid-market moves on Wednesday, adding to the gains in the previous four sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving up to near the 8,100 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains financial and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 18.70 points or 0.23 percent to 8,089.30, after touching a high of 8,102.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 16.00 points or 0.19 percent to 8,303.90. Australian stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, Mineral Resources and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Rio Tinto is adding almost 1 percent. Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.1 percent and Beach energy is down more than 1 percent, while Santos and Origin Energy are losing almost 1 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block, Zip and WiseTech Global are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Xero is edging up 0.4 percent. Appen is losing almost 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Commonwealth Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Among gold miners, Newmont is edging down 0.5 percent and Northern Star Resources is declining more than 1 percent, while Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each. Resolute Mining is flat.

In economic news, Australia's monthly Consumer Price Index stood unchanged from the previous month at 2.4 percent in March 2025, its lowest level since November 2024. Meanwhile, the annual trimmed mean inflation edged up to 2.9 percent from 2.7 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.638 on Wednesday.