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 four sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by technology, iron ore miners and energy stocks. Gold stocks were the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 45.50 points or 0.55 percent to 8,279.00, after touching a day's high of 8,314.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 55.00 points or 0.65 percent to 8,522.00. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 3 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 4 percent and Mineral Resources is soaring more than 10 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy is edging up 0.3 percent, Woodside Energy is advancing almost 4 percent, Beach energy is gaining almost 2 percent and Santos is adding almost 3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is surging almost 7 percent, Zip is soaring more than 13 percent, WiseTech Global is advancing more than 6 percent, Appen is skyrocketing almost 21 percent and Xero is gaining more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is sliding almost 7 percent, Gold Road Resources is down more than 1 percent, Northern Star resources is declining almost 5 percent, Newmont is tumbling more than 3 percent and Resolute Mining is losing almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is edging up 0.5 percent and Westpac is gaining almost 2 percent, while ANZ Banking is losing almost 2 percent and Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.4 percent.

In other news, shares in Life360 are soaring more than 13 percent after the location technology company reported record results for the first quarter driven partly by another increase in its user base.

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