The Australian stock market saw its initial gains reduced by midday on Monday, despite a reversal of losses from the previous session. This followed generally positive signals from Wall Street last Friday, with energy and technology sectors leading the advances. Notably, gold miners were the only underperforming group.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index had increased by 15.10 points, or 0.18%, to stand at 8,325.50, after reaching a peak of 8,348.20 earlier in the trading day. The broader All Ordinaries Index rose by 14.70 points, or 0.17%, to 8,572.10. Australian stocks had ended with modest losses last Friday.
In the mining sector, BHP Group experienced a slight rise of 0.5%, and Rio Tinto advanced nearly 1%. In contrast, Fortescue Metals and Mineral Resources saw marginal declines of between 0.1% and 0.2%. The oil industry showed better performance, with Woodside Energy and Origin Energy both up close to 1%, and Santos increasing by 0.3%. Conversely, Beach Energy fell by nearly 2%.
Technology stocks demonstrated mixed results. Block, the parent company of Afterpay, gained nearly 1%, Zip edged up by 0.2%, and Appen surged by over 4%. However, WiseTech Global and Xero each saw slight decreases of 0.2%.
Gold mining companies mostly struggled, with Evolution Mining dropping over 1%, Resolute Mining declining by almost 4%, Northern Star Resources slipping nearly 3%, and Newmont slightly down by 0.1%. In contrast, Gold Road Resources bucked the trend with an increase of over 1%.
Regarding the major banks, Westpac, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking, and Commonwealth Bank all edged up between 0.3% and 0.4%.
In other developments, Star Entertainment shares plummeted by more than 7% following a warning that the beleaguered casino operator's survival depends on securing new funding sources. Meanwhile, Iress shares climbed over 4% following the software company's announcement of its superannuation business sale to Apex Group for $40 million in cash.
In the foreign exchange market, the Australian dollar was trading at $0.621 on Monday.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company -
www.instaforex.com
