Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is notably higher on Thursday, recouping the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moved above the 7,000 mark, with gains in mining and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 39.70 points or 0.57 percent to 7,035.10, after touching a high of 7,038.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 37.70 points or 0.52 percent to 7,236.10. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is adding more than 1 percent and Mineral Resources is advancing more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Beach energy are losing almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy is declining more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global is losing almost 1 percent and Xero is plunging almost 9 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 3 percent, Zip is surging more than 5 percent and Appen is advancing 1.5 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining 1.5 percent and National Australia Bank is adding almost 2 percent, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are up more than 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Resolute Mining is declining almost 3 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent, while Gold Road Resources is adding almost 1 percent. Northern Star Resources is flat, while trading in Newcrest Mining is suspended.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.640 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, with the major averages bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line after trending higher over the past several sessions.

The major averages eventually ended the session narrowly mixed. While the Dow edged down 40.33 points or 0.1 percent to 34,112.27, the Nasdaq crept up 10.56 points or 0.1 percent to 13,650.41 and the S&P 500 inched up 4.40 points or 0.1 percent to 4,382.78.

Meanwhile, most European stocks moved to the upside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.7 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand and a jump in U.S. crude oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December lost $2.04 or about 2.6 percent at $75.33 a barrel.