Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is currently trading notably higher on Monday, recouping some of the losses in the previous four sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving to near the 7,800.00 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with gains across most sectore led by gold miners, technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 44.80 points or 0.58 percent to 7,772.40, after touching a high of 7,780.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 43.10 points or 0.54 percent to 8,042.30. Australian stocks closed sharply lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto, Mineral Resources and Fortescue Metals are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while BHP Group is edging up 0.5 percent. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Origin Energy are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Santos is edging up 0.5 percent. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among tech stocks, Xero and Appen are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global ares edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each. Zip is advancing more than 3 percent.

Gold miners are higher. Resolute Mining and Newmont are up almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are adding almost 2 percent each. Gold Road Resources is gaining more than 2 percent.

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

In other news, shares in Lendlease are surging almost 9 percent after it unveiled sweeping changes to its global strategy.

Shares in Vista Group are soaring 19 percent after private capital firm Potentia Group acquired an 18.5 percent stake in the film software company.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.663 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Friday following the downturn seen over the course of the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the rebound, surging to a new record closing high.

The Nasdaq jumped 184.76 points or 1.1 percent to 16,920.94 and the S&P 500 climbed 36.88 points or 0.7 percent to 5,304.72, while the narrower Dow ended the day roughly flat, inching up just 4.33 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 39,069.59.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, although the German DAX Index closed just above the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices moved higher Friday, snapping a four-day losing streak despite concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended higher by $0.85 at $77.72 a barrel.