Australian Market Extends Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is extending early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, adding to the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 9,000 mark to fresh all-time highs, with gains across most sectors led by mining, financial and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 91.30 points or 1.02 percent to 9,009.30, after touching a record all-time high of 9,013.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 95.90 points or 1.05 percent to 9,273.30. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is advancing more than 3 percent and Fortescue is adding more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto and BHP Group are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent and Santos is adding more than 1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Xero are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Appen is gaining almost 2 percent and WiseTech Global is adding almost 1 percent. Zip is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging up 0.5 percent and ANZ Banking is gaining almost 2 percent, while National Australia Bank and Westpac are adding more than 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is adding almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing more than 4 percent, while Newmont and Evolution Mining are gaining almost 2 percent each. Gold Road Resources is edging down 0.5 percent.

In other news, shares in Super Retail are jumping almost 13 percent after it posted record annual sales of $4.1 billion, up 4.5 percent.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to expand in August, and at a faster rate, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Thursday with a manufacturing PMI score of 52.9. That's up from 51.3 in July and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the services PMI improved to 55.1 in August from 54.1 in July. Also, the composite PMI climbed to 54.9 from 53.8 a month earlier.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.642 on Thursday.