The Australian stock market is extending its early gains in mid-market moves on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 8,750 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in mining and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in energy stocks.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 86.30 points or 0.98 percent to 8,766.80, after touching a high of 8,787.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 83.30 points or 0.94 percent to 8,986.60. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.
Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is edging up 0.4 percent and Mineral Resources is advancing more than 2 percent.
Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy is losing more than 1 percent, Woodside Energy is down more than 2 percent and Santos is edging down 0.2 percent, while Origin Energy is gaining almost 1 percent.
In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 1 percent. Xero and WiseTech Global are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Appen is gaining almost 4 percent and Zip is adding more than 2 percent.
Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is advancing almost 3 percent, ANZ Banking is gaining more than 3 percent, National Australia bank is adding almost 4 percent and Westpac is surging almost 5 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Genesis Minerals are losing almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is declining more than 2 percent. Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent and Newmont is edging up 0.5 percent.
In other news, shares in David Di-Pilla backed DigiCo are soaring more than 22 percent after the data centre developer announced the sale of its Chicago site for $1 billion as the company looks to off-load its North American locations in favour of expanding its flagship Sydney data centre.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.721 on Wednesday.
The Japanese stock market is closed for Constitution Day holiday on Wednesday. Japanese stocks ended modestly higher on Friday ahead of the holidays on Monday and Tuesday.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 157 yen-range on Wednesday.
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Market Analysis
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.