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The Australian stock market is maintaining its early gains in mid-market trading on Monday, extending the gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P\/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,800.00 level, with gains in energy and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners and technology<\/span> stocks.<\/p>\n The benchmark S&P\/ASX 200 Index is gaining 20.30 points or 0.23 percent to 8,827.00, after touching a high of 8,849.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 17.60 points or 0.20 percent to 8,958.00. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Friday. <\/p>\n Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Fortescue is edging up 0.3 percent, while Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent and Rio Tinto is edging down 0.1 percent.<\/p>\n Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy, Santos and Beach energy are gaining almost 2 percent each. Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent.<\/p>\n Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 3 percent, WiseTech Global is declining more than 3 percent and Xero is slipping almost 4 percent, while Appen and Zip are down almost 2 percent each.<\/p>\n Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources is losing almost 1 percent, while Evolution Mining, Resolute Mining and Genesis Minerals are declining almost 2 percent each. Newmont is gaining more than 2 percent.<\/p>\n Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are all gaining almost 1 percent each.<\/p>\n In other news, shares in Cleanaway are soaring almost 20 percent on news the Swedish buyout giant EQT had signed a deal to take the waste management company private.<\/p>\n Shares in Challenger are spiking more than 17 percent on news that the annuities giant is considering a takeover offer from Japan’s Daiichi Life worth $7.8 billion.<\/p>\n Shares in Ingenia Communities are surging more than 7 percent ahead of the decision deadline given by US private equity group Warburg Pincus for its $2.14 billion takeover offer.<\/p>\n Shares in Mesoblast are tumbling more than 9 percent after reporting in a quarterly update that its revenue and sales fell well short of market expectations.<\/p>\n In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.697 on Monday. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n