Australian Market Halves Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market halved its early gains in mid-market trading on Tuesday, but still extending the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from European markets and lack of cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving to near the 8,400.00 level, with gains in mining and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 44.70 points or 0.54 percent to 8,392.10, after touching a high of 8,453.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 46.90 points or 0.55 percent to 8,641.30. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Mineral Resources is losing more than 2 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are lower. Origin Energy and Santos are losing more than 2 percent each, while Beach energy is down almost 1 percent. Woodside Energy is flat. Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while WiseTech Global Xero is losing more than 1 percent. Zip is gaining almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are higher. Gold Road Resources and Resolute Mining are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Evolution Mining is adding more than 1 percent and Newmont is edging up 0.4 percent. Northern Star resources is flat.

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

In other news, shares in Hub24 are jumping more than 12 percent after the wealth platform reported record quarterly platform net inflows of $5.5 billion.

Shares in Liontown Resources are soaring almost 12 percent after the lithium miner delivered a three-fold increase in spodumene concentrate output following ramp up at Kathleen Valley Lithium Operation.

Shares in Novonix are tumbling almost 8 percent after the battery materials and technology company's CEO Chris Burns decided to step down from the role.

Shares in Yancoal Australia are surging more than 5 percent after reporting a 5 percent increase in saleable coal production to 36.9 million tonnes, in line with targets.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.625 on Tuesday.