Australian Market Trims Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trimming its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, recouping some of the losses in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,550.00 level, with gains in iron ore miners and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 4.50 points or 0.05 percent to 8,551.90, after touching a high of 8,579.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 6.80 points or 0.08 percent to 8,777.40. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging 0.5 percent, Fortescue Metals is up almost 1 percent, Rio Tinto is gaining 1.5 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is advancing more than 3 percent and Woodside Energy is surging almost 4 percent, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

Santos is soaring almost 12 percent after a consortium led by Abu Dhabi's state-owned oil company Adnoc agreed to buy it in a A$30 billion deal.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Appen is declining almost 1 percent and Zip is losing more than 2 percent. Xero is flat.

Gold miners are mixed. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are tumbling more than 5 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is losing more than 1 percent. Newmont is gaining almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is surging almost 9 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Westpac and ANZ Banking are losing 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in Tourism Holdings are skyrocketing more than 50 percent after the commercial recreational vehicle rental operator received a conditional takeover proposal from a consortium led by private equity firm BGH Capital and the family interests of Luke and Karl Trouchet. BGH Capital has already acquired a 19.99% interest in the company.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.648 on Monday.