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 session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is staying above the 8,850 level, with gains in gold mining and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and financial stocks.

Traders remain cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank Australia's interest rate decision later in the day, with the markets widely expecting a fifth interest rate hike by 25 basis points to 4.85 percent, a 18-year high.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 1.00 points or 0.01 percent to 8,857.50, after touching a high of 8,909.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 1.70 points or 0.02 percent to 8,978.90. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are flat, while Mineral Resources is edging up 0.3 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is losing almost 2 percent, Santos is declining more than 2 percent, Woodside Energy is slipping almost 4 percent and Origin Energy is edging down 0.3 percent.

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

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining almost 3 percent, Genesis Minerals is jumping almost 4 percent, Resolute Mining is advancing almost 2 percent, Northern Star Resources is up more than 1 percent and Newmont is adding more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are losing more than 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging down 0.2 percent. Commonwealth Bank is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.700 on Tuesday.