Australian Market Trims Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trimming its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, but extending the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,850 level, with gains is iron ore miners and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 57.90 points or 0.66 percent to 8,880.90, after touching a high of 8,926.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 56.80 points or 0.63 percent to 9,061.70. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is advancing more than 3 percent.

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Xero are losing more than 2 percent each, while Appen is slipping almost 2 percent, and WiseTech Global is declining more than 3 percent. Zip is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are losing more than 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is declining almost 2 percent.

Among gold miners, Newmont is losing more than 1 percent, Resolute Mining is slipping more than 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is down more than 2 percent, while Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are declining almost 3 percent each.

In economic news, Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.4 percent in June, in line with both market expectations and May's figure. The number of unemployed rose by 12,700 to 686,800 from 674,100 in May.

Employment increased by 76,300 to a record high of 14.82 million, surpassing estimates of a 15,000 increase, following an upwardly revised gain of 43,900 jobs in May. The participation rate ticked up to 67.0% from both May's figure and market expectations of 66.7%, marking its highest level since July 2025.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.701 on Thursday.