The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Friday, adding to the sharp gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 8,650 level, with strong gains in mining stocks, particularly gold stocks amid jumping bullion prices.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 102.50 points or 1.19 percent to 8,694.50, after touching a high of 8,694.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 102.50 points or 1.16 percent to 8,980.00. Australian stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.
Among major miners, Mineral Resources is edging up 0.5 percent, while BHP Group, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are advancing almost 2 percent each.
Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is losing more than 1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Beach energy are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Origin Energy is edging up 0.4 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block and Zip are edging up 0.5 percent each, while WiseTech Global is gaining more than 1 percent. Appen is losing almost 1 percent and Xero is flat.
Among the big four banks, Westpac is edging up 0.3 percent, while Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each. Gold miners are mostly higher. Resolute Mining is adding almost 4 percent, Newmont is surging more than 5 percent, Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 3 percent, Evolution Mining is advancing more than 4 percent and Genesis Minerals is jumping more than 6 percent.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.666 on Friday.
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Market Analysis
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.