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 above the 7,100 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains led by financial and energy stocks, even as traders remain optimistic the US Fed will scale down the pace of its interest rate hikes. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 25.50 points or 0.36 percent to 7,161.20, after touching a high of 7,161.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 21.70 points or 0.30 percent to 7,360.70. Australian markets ended modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.5 percent and Fortescue Metals is gaining almost 2 percent, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.4 percent and Mineral Resources is losing almost 3 percent. OZ Minerals is surging 4.5 percent on returning from a trading halt after the copper miner accepted BHP Group's sweetened $9.6 billion offer to acquire it.

Oil stocks are higher. Origin Energy is gaining almost 1 percent, Santos is adding more than 1 percent and Beach energy is edging up 0.4 percent, while Woodside Energy is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global and Zip are losing almost 2 percent each, while Xero is down almost 1 percent and Afterpay owner Block is declining more than 2 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is gaining almost 1 percent, Westpac is advancing almost 2 percent, Commonwealth Bank is edging up 0.2 percent and ANZ Banking is adding more than 1 percent. Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining and Newcrest Mining are losing almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.5 percent, and Gold Road Resources is declining more than 1 percent, while Resolute Mining is gaining 1.5 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.670 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks went on another wild ride over the course of the trading day on Thursday, extending the volatility seen in recent sessions. After recovering from an early sell-off, the major averages pulled back once again to end the day in negative territory.

The major averages moved back to the upside going into the close but finished the session in the red. While the Dow edged down 7.51 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 33,546.32, the Nasdaq fell 38.70 points or 0.4 percent to 11,144.96 and the S&P 500 dipped 12.23 points or 0.3 percent to 3,946.56.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned mixed over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index inched up by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Thursday, pushing the most active oil futures contract to a more than three week closing low. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended lower by $3.95 or about 4.6 percent at $81.64 a barrel.