Australian Market Halves Its Early Gains In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is halving its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, reversing some of the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,800 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and energy stocks amid rebounding commodity prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 16.20 points or 0.18 percent to 8,818.20, after touching a high of 8,857.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 19.20 points or 0.21 percent to 9,090.40. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is gaining more than 2 percent, BHP Group is adding 1.5 percent and Fortescue is advancing almost 2 percent, while Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent, Santos is edging up 0.4 percent and Woodside Energy is advancing more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is flat.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Appen is adding more than 2 percent. Zip is declining more than 3 percent and Xero is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is declining more than 4 percent and Westpac is losing more than 2 percent, while Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking is edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining, Newmont and Northern Star Resources are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Genesis Minerals is advancing 3.5 percent and Resolute Mining is adding more than 3 percent.

In other news, shares in Light & Wonder are jumping almost 11 percent on upbeat quarterly financial results amid stronger gaming operations and record iGaming revenue.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Thursday.