Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is extending early 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 up to near the 8,900 level to fresh all-time highs, with gains in mining, energy and financial stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 70.70 points or 0.80 percent to 8,897.80, after touching a fresh all-time high of 8,898.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 69.00 points or 0.76 percent to 9,172.10. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing more than 3 percent and Fortescue is adding more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is losing more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent, Santos is edging up 0.1 percent and Origin Energy is surging almost 5 percent on upbeat full-year results, while Woodside Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

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

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is advancing more than 3 percent, ANZ Banking is gaining almost 3 percent and Westpac is surging more than 6 percent on upbeat third-quarter results. Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 1 percent, Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.2 percent, while Newmont is edging down 0.3 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent.

In economic news, employment in Australia increased by 24,500 to an all-time record of 14.64 million in July 2025, sharply higher than a downwardly revised 1,000 rise in the previous month but slightly below market consensus of a 25,000 gain.

Full-time employment surged 60,500 to an all-time record of 10.13 million, sharply higher than a downwardly revised 36,700 gain in June. However, part-time employment declined by 35,900 to 4.52 million, down from a downwardly revised 37,600 increase in June.

The employment-to-population ratio edged up to 64.2 percent, with the participation rate steady at 67.0 percent. Year-on-year, total employment grew by 263,700, or 1.8 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.656 on Thursday.