Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly higher on Monday, reversing the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,700.00 level, with gains in gold miners, financial stocks and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in iron ore miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 35.90 points or 0.41 percent to 8,702.80, after touching a high of 8,703.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 36.40 points or 0.41 percent to 8,970.70. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto, Fortescue and BHP Group are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining more than 4 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent, while Santos is edging up 0.3 percent and Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent. Beach energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is edging up 0.2 percent, Zip is adding almost 2 percent and Xero is advancing almost 1 percent, while Appen is losing almost 3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources is adding more than 1 percent and Newmont is advancing more than 4 percent, while Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are gaining almost 1 percent each. Resolute Mining is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is gaining almost 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.658 on Monday.

On Wall Street, the markets put together a solid performance on the final day of the trading week, which saw the Dow reverse losses from the previous session and the NASDAQ and S&P 500 hit fresh record closing highs. The markets opened slightly to the upside on Friday and continued to tick higher as the day progressed.

The Dow jumped 208.01 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 44,901.92, while the NASDAQ gained 50.36 points or 0.24 percent to close at 21,108.32 and the S&P 500 improved 25.29 points or 0.40 percent to end at 6,388.64.

The European markets closed mixed on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX closed lower by 0.26 percent and 0.41 percent, respectively and France's CAC 40 ended up 0.17 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Friday on reports that the U.S. might allow partners of Venezuela's state-run PDVSA to resume operations, sparking concerns of over-supply. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery closed, down $0.88 or 1.33 percent to $65.15 per barrel.