Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading notably higher on Thursday, reversing some of the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,600 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining, technology and financial stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 43.40 points or 0.51 percent to 8,605.20, after touching a high of 8,608.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 41.30 points or 0.47 percent to 8,857.70. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Mineral Resources are edging up 0.1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is gaining more than 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is adding almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent, while Beach energy, Santos and Origin Energy are flat.

In the tech space, Zip and Appen are gaining almost 1 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is adding almost 4 percent and Xero is advancing more than 1 percent. WiseTech Global is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging up 0.3 percent.

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

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading day on Wednesday following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. The major averages moved to the upside in the latter part of the session, however, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq reaching a new record closing high.

The major averages all finished the day in positive territory. The Dow advanced 231.49 points or 0.5 percent to 44,254.78, the Nasdaq rose 52.69 points or 0.3 percent to 20,730.49 and the S&P 500 climbed 19.94 points or 0.3 percent to 6,263.70.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also moved to the downside over the course of the session. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index slipped by 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices dropped for the third straight day on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration said gasoline inventories increased by 3.4 million barrels last week and are slightly above the five-year average for this time of year. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery fell $0.14 to settle at $65.38 per barrel.