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 the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,600 level, with gains across most sectors led by technology and financial stocks. Iron ore miners were the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 37.60 points or 0.44 percent to 8,608.00, after touching a high of 8,632.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 36.60 points or 0.42 percent to 8,851.90. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are all losing almost 1 percent each. Mineral Resources is edging up 0.1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Santos are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Origin Energy is adding almost 2 percent and Beach energy is edging up 0.4 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is surging almost 6 percent, Appen is advancing more than 5 percent, Zip is adding almost 3 percent, Xero is up more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is gaining almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Gold Road Resources is gaining almost 1 percent and Northern Star resources is adding 1.5 percent, while Newmont and Evolution Mining are edging up 0.4 percent each. Resolute Mining is losing more than 3 percent.

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

In other news, shares in Tyro Payments are tumbling almost 5 percent after the Reserve Bank announced it would ban surcharges on all debit and credit transactions under the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks in a bid to overhaul the payments system.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.655 on Tuesday.