Australian Market Maintains Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market moves on Wednesday, extending to the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 8,800 level to all-time record highs, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by mining and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 48.30 points or 0.55 percent to 8,818.70, after touching an all-time record high of 8,824.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 56.70 points or 0.63 percent to 9,085.50. Australian stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.3 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 1 percent, while Fortescue and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos and Beach energy are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Woodside Energy is gaining more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is declining more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is edging down 0.4 percent, while Zip is advancing almost 2 percent, Xero is adding almost 1 percent and Appen is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining almost 1 percent and Westpac is edging up 0.2 percent, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.2 percent. National Australia bank is flat.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Resolute Mining are surging almost 6 percent each, while Evolution Mining is gaining almost 3 percent, Newmont is advancing more than 2 percent and Gold Road Resources is up more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Lindian Resources are skyrocketing almost 33 percent after it entered into a deal with Iluka for the long-term supply of rare earths concentrate.

Shares in Infomedia are soaring almost 28 percent after its board agreed to an acquisition by McQueen BidCo, which is owned by funds managed or advised by TPG Capital.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.648 on Wednesday.