Australian Market Trims Early Strong Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market slightly trims early strong gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, 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 8,300 level, with gains is gold miners, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 105.80 points or 1.29 percent to 8,319.10, after touching a high of 8,345.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 103.70 points or 1.23 percent to 8,560.50. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Mineral Resources is losing more than 1 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy and Santos are edging down 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Origin Energy is losing more than 1 percent. Beach energy is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Zip is surging almost 7 percent, WiseTech Global is advancing 1.5 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining 2.5 percent and National Australia Bank is advancing almost 3 percent, while Westpac and ANZ Banking are adding more than 2 percent each. Among gold miners, Gold Road Resources is advancing almost 3 percent, Evolution Mining is up more than 2 percent and Newmont is adding more than 3 percent, while Resolute Mining is declining 2.5 percent. Northern Star Resources is flat.

In economic news, the unemployment rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 4.0 percent in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - in line with expectations and up from 3.9 percent in November. The participation rate was 67.1 percent, beating forecasts for 67.0 percent - which would have been unchanged.

The Australian economy added 56,300 jobs last month, blowing away expectations for an increase of 14,500 following the downwardly revised gain of 28,200 in November (originally 35,600 jobs). Full-time employment was down 23,700 jobs, while part-time employment jumped by 80,000.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.622 on Thursday.