Australian Market Trims Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, reversing some of the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,450 level, with gains across most se led by gold miners, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 31.90 points or 0.38 percent to 8,446.00, after touching a day's high of 8,479.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 33.20 points or 0.38 percent to 8,670.70. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.3 percent and Fortescue Metals is adding more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.5 percent and Mineral Resources is losing almost 3 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 1 percent, WiseTech Global is adding almost 1 percent and Appen is advancing almost 2 percent, while Zip and Xero are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining almost 3 percent, Northern Star resources is up almost 2 percent, Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent, Newmont is advancing almost 4 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while ANZ Banking is adding almost 1 percent and Westpac is gaining more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in IDP Education are plummeting more than 41 percent after the international education provider downgraded its earnings guidance as it now expects student placements to drop by up 28 to 30 percent and language testing volumes to drop 18 to 20 percent amid global policy uncertainty.

In economic news, the Reserve Bank of Australia will on Tuesday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on May 20. At the meeting, the RBA cut the cash rate target to 3.85 percent from 4.10 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.649 on Tuesday.