Australian Market Turns To Modest Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is turning its early losses to modest gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, after being in the red most of the morning session, extending the gains in the previous six sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying well below the 8,300 level, with gains in financial and technology stocks nearly offset by weakness in mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 12.50 points or 0.15 percent to 8,292.10, after hitting a low of 8,257.40 and a high of 8,299.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 5.00 points or 0.06 percent to 8,525.20. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are losing more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is gaining almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Santos and Woodside Energy are losing almost 1 percent each, while Beach energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.1 percent each.

In the tech space, Appen is gaining more than 1 percent, Xero is adding more than 3 percent and WiseTech Global is edging up 0.4 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.4 percent and Zip is losing more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.5 percent each, while National Australia Bank is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is slipping almost 2 percent, Gold Road Resources is down almost 1 percent, Newmont is declining more than 3 percent, Evolution Mining is edging down 0.2 percent and Resolute Mining is sliding almost 5 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.644 on Thursday.