Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Friday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,850 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks. Energy stocks were the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 64.90 points or 0.74 percent to 8,869.90, after touching a high of 8,887.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 63.70 points or 0.70 percent to 9,135.90. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing more than 2 percent, Rio Tinto is adding almost 1 percent and Fortescue is edging up 0.4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is declining almost 3 percent and Origin Energy is edging down 0.1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Santos are losing more than 1 percent each. Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is gaining almost 2 percent and Appen is advancing more than 4 percent, while afterpay-owner Block, Zip and Xero are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Westpac is adding 1.5 percent.

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

In other news, shares in BSP Financial, also known as Bank South Pacific, are jumping more than 10 percent after it announced that the Papua New Guinea prime minister had assured the bank that it would continue to service and maintain government accounts.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.666 on Friday.