Australian Market Marginally Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is marginally higher on Tuesday, recouping some of the losses in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 6,800 level, following the mostly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, boosted largely by energy and resource stocks, nearly offset by weakness in gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 5.20 points or 0.08 percent to 6,795.10, after touching a high of 6,808.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 3.80 points or 0.05 percent to 7,010.20. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is adding almost 3 percent. OZ Minerals is edging down 0.5 percent.

Oil stocks are higher, with Beach energy gaining more than 2 percent and Woodside Energy up more than 1 percent, while Santos and Origin Energy are adding almost 2 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is losing more than 4 percent, WiseTech Global is edging down 0.5 percent and Xero is declining more than 2 percent, while Appen is gaining more than 1 percent. Zip is rebounding and is skyrocketing more than 20 percent.

Gold miners are lower. Newcrest Mining and Resolute Mining are losing almost 3 percent each, while Evolution Mining, Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are down almost 1 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.3 percent, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining more than 1 percent each. National Australia Bank is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.697 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks ended on a mixed note on Monday after a choppy session as investors largely stayed cautious, looking ahead to some key earnings updates, the GDP data and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement.

The major averages ended mixed. The Dow ended with a gain of 90.75 points or 0.28 percent at 31,990.04, and the S&P 500 settled with a gain of 5.21 points or 0.13 percent at 3,966.84, while the Nasdaq finished with a loss of 51.45 points or 0.43 percent at 11,782.67.

European stocks also turned in a mixed performance. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.41 percent and France's CAC 40 gained 0.33 percent, while Germany's DAX drifted down 0.33 percent.

Crude oil futures settled sharply higher on Monday as concerns about outlook for energy demand eased, while the dollar's weakness ahead of the upcoming Fed statement also supported crude oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $2.00 or 2.1 percent at $96.70 a barrel.