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 adding to the gains in the previous three sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,900 level, with gains in mining and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 6.70 points or 0.08 percent to 8,869.50, after touching a high of 8,892.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 7.60 points or 0.08 percent to 9,156.10. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is advancing more than 2 percent, Rio Tinto are gaining almost 2 percent, Fortescue is adding almost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is edging up 0.5 percent. Oil stocks are lower. Santos, Woodside Energy and Beach energy are declining more than 2 percent each, while Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block, Xero and Zip are gaining more than 1 percent each, while WiseTech Global is edging down 0.4 percent. Appen is flat.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star resources is adding almost 1 percent and Evolution Mining is gaining more than 1 percent, while Resolute Mining is declining almost 3 percent and Newmont is losing more than 2 percent. Gold Road Resources is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is down almost 1 percent and ANZ Banking is losing more than 1 percent, while Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In economic news, the total number of building permits issued in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 6.0 percent on month in June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday - coming in at 14,744. That was well shy of forecasts for an increase of 2.5 percent following the downwardly revised 10.0 percent drop in July (originally -8.2 percent). On a yearly basis, approvals rose 3.0 percent - again missing forecasts for a gain of 8.3 percent following the upwardly revised 9.2 percent gain in the previous month (originally 8.3 percent).

Private sector credit in Australia was up 0.6 percent on month in August, the Reserve Bank of Australia said on Tuesday - in line with expectations and easing from 0.7 percent in July. On an annual basis, private sector credit was up 7.2 percent.

Individually, housing credit rose 0.6 percent on month and 6.1 percent on year, while personal credit added 0.5 percent on month and 4.1 percent on year and business credit was up 0.6 percent on month and 9.9 percent on year. Broad money advanced 0.6 percent on month and 6.8 percent on year.

The RBA will wrap up its monetary policy later today and then announce its decision on interest rates. The RBA is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 3.60 percent

In other news, shares in Seven West Media group are surging more than 7 percent and Southern Cross Media are up almost 5 percent after the media companies agreed to an over $400 million merger that will see the Seven Network, West Australian Newspapers and the Triple M and Hit radio networks join as one consolidated company.

Shares in Restaurant Brands NZ are skyrocketing more than 59 percent after the food company received a takeover offer from its majority shareholder, Mexican company Finaccess Restauracion for NZ$5.05 or $4.44 per share.

Shares in Orthocell are soaring almost 17 percent after it initiated the commercialisation of its nerve repair device Remplir in Canada, securing exclusive distributorships in Alberta and British Columbia, with plans for further expansion.

Trading in shares of Star Entertainment Group has been paused pending a further announcement.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.657 on Tuesday.