Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably higher on Tuesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,400 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks, after US President Donald Trump's delayed the imposition of tariffs on major U.S. trading partners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 41.50 points or 0.50 percent to 8,420.90, after touching a high of 8,446.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 48.30 points or 0.56 percent to 8,676.70. Australian stocks closed sharply lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is advancing 2.5 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are adding almost 2 percent each.

Oil stocks are mixed. Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent and Santos is edging down 0.3 percent, while Woodside Energy is edging up 0.1 percent and Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent, Xero is up almost 1 percent, Zip is advancing more than 3 percent, WiseTech Global is adding more than 1 percent and Appen is surging more than 5 percent after reporting upbeat fourth-quarter results.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Newmont are up almost 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining and Northern Star resources are edging up 0.5 percent each. Gold Road Resources is gaining almost 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are adding almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in Predictive Discovery are gaining more than 9 percent after the gold explorer would offload a 10 per cent stake to two mining investors to raise $69.2 million.

Shares in Nufarm are surging more than 6 percent after the chemicals company told investors a previously announced belt-tightening program remains on track.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.621 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower early in the session on Monday but regained ground over the course of the trading day. The major averages climbed well off their worst levels, with the Dow briefly reaching positive territory, but ended the day in the red.

After plunging by as much as 2.5 percent in early trading, the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished the session down 235.49 points or 1.2 percent at 19,391.96. The S&P 500 also slid 45.96 points or 0.8 percent to 5,994.57, while the Dow fell 122.75 points or 0.3 percent to 44,421.91.

The major European markets also showed notable moves to the downside. While the German DAX Index tumbled 1.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Monday after Trump's imposed tariffs on imports from Canada threatened to disrupt North America's tightly integrated oil market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March settled at $73.16 a barrel, up $0.63 or about 0.87 percent.