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 staying above the 8,800.00 level, with gains in iron ore miners, energy and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 30.10 points or 0.34 percent to 8,837.20, after touching a high of 8,852.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 31.60 points or 0.35 percent to 9,108.20. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue is adding more than 1 percent, Rio Tinto is gaining 1.5 percent, BHP Group is advancing almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is soaring almost 10 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy, Santos and Woodside Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, Beach energy is advancing almost 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is tumbling more than 9 percent, Zip is losing almost 1 percent and Xero is declining more than 1 percent, while WiseTech Global is edging up 0.1 percent and Appen is gaining more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources is declining almost 2 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent, while Gold Road Resources and Newmont are down more than 1 percent each. Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank are adding almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining more than 1 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.652 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading on Friday following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. With the upward move, the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a new record closing high.

The major averages all finished the day firmly in positive territory. The Nasdaq jumped 207.32 points or 1.0 percent to 21,450.02, the S&P 500 advanced 49.45 points or 0.8 percent to 6,389.45 and the Dow climbed 206.97 points or 0.5 percent to 44,175.61.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both slipped by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil posted very slight gains on Friday as uncertainty prevails over the U.S.-Russia conflict over the war with Ukraine, combined with the threat of sanctions on Russian oil exports. West Texas Intermediate crude for September was up $0.03 or 0.05 percent to $63.91 per barrel.