Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading notably higher on Thursday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,600 level, with gains across all sectors led by technology and mining stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 52.80 points or 0.62 percent to 8,591.40, after touching a high of 8,692.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 52.80 points or 0.60 percent to 8,830.70. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday.

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

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are adding more than 2 percent each, while Zip and Xero are edging up 0.3 percent each. WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Gold Road Resources are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Resolute Mining and Newmont are adding almost 3 percent each. Evolution Mining is gaining more than 2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.654 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Wednesday after ending Tuesday's choppy trading session little changed. The major averages gave back ground after an early advance but moved back to the upside as the day progressed, closing firmly in positive territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 192.87 points or 0.9 percent to a new record closing high of 20,611.34, the S&P 500 climbed 37.74 points or 0.6 percent to 6,263.26 and the Dow rose 217.54 points or 0.5 percent to 44,458.30.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both jumped by 1.4 percent.

Crude oil prices inched higher on Wednesday, as Saudi projections for increased demand were offset by a jump in U.S. oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery ticked higher by $0.05 to settle at $68.38 per barrel.