Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 6,900 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors, led by technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 17.90 points or 0.26 percent to 6,866.60, after touching a high of 6,882.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 22.20 points or 0.31 percent to 7,107.50. Australian markets ended sharply higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent, Rio Tinto is adding almost 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 3 percent, while OZ Minerals is edging down 0.4 percent. Mineral Resources is soaring almost 11 percent on reports of a potential demerger of its lithium operations amid recent restructuring to maximise value for shareholders.

Oil stocks are mostly weak. Origin Energy and Beach energy are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Santos is losing almost 1 percent. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 4 percent, Appen is adding more than 2 percent, Xero is up almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is advancing more than 3 percent, while Zip is losing almost 3 percent. Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is edging up 0.2 percent.

Gold miners are strong. Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources are adding more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is gaining almost 1 percent, Evolution Mining is advancing almost 4 percent and Gold Road Resources is up more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.679 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw significant volatility during trading on Thursday, with the major averages showing wild swings before eventually the day firmly positive. With the upward move on the day, the major averages extended the recovery rally seen in the previous session.

The major averages continued to recover after ending Tuesday's trading at their lowest closing levels in over a month. The Dow climbed 193.24 points or 0.6 percent to 31,774.52, the Nasdaq rose 70.23 points or 0.6 percent to 11,862.13 and the S&P 500 advanced 26.31 points or 0.7 percent to 4,006.18.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both climbed by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher Thursday following Russia's threat to halt oil and gas exports to some buyers. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.60 or 2 percent at $83.54 a barrel.