Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Extending the gains in the previous two sessions, the Australian stock market is notably higher on Tuesday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 7,200 level, with gains in index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 35.70 points or 0.50 percent to 7,234.70, after touching a high of 7,241.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 36.30 points or 0.49 percent to 7, 446.50. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue Metals is gaining 1.5 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.2 percent. BHP Group is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Santos are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Beach energy is losing almost 3 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global and Xero are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.3 percent. Appen is declining more than 2 percent and Zip is slipping almost 5 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Gold Road Resources is losing almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is declining almost 2 percent, while Evolution Mining and Newmont are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each. Northern Star resources is flat.

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

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

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Monday but managed to end the day moderately higher. With the upward move, the major averages once again finished the session at their best closing level in well over two years.

The major averages closed just off their highs of the session. The Dow climbed 157.06 points or 0.4 percent to 36,404.93, the Nasdaq edged up 28.51 points or 0.2 percent to 14,432.49 and the S&P 500 rose 18.07 points or 0.4 percent to 4,622.44.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index crept up by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Monday due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $71.32 a barrel.