Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading notably higher on Wednesday, adding to the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 8,800 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by mining and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 49.90 points or 0.57 percent to 8,820.30, after touching a high of 8,824.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 55.40 points or 0.61 percent to 9,084.20. Australian stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.2 percent, while Mineral Resources, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy and Beach energy are edging up 0.4 percent each, while Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent. Santos is flat.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is declining more than 1 percent and Zip is slipping almost 1 percent, while Xero and WiseTech Global are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Appen is gaining more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining more than 1 percent and Westpac is adding almost 1 percent, while ANZ Banking and National Australia bank are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is surging more than 5 percent, Newmont is advancing more than 2 percent and Gold Road Resources is up more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Lindian Resources are skyrocketing more than 38 percent after it entered into a deal with Iluka for the long-term supply of rare earths concentrate.

Shares in Infomedia are soaring almost 28 percent after its board agreed to an acquisition by McQueen BidCo, which is owned by funds managed or advised by TPG Capital.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.648 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the session on Tuesday after initially extending yesterday's rally in early trading. The major averages all moved to the downside, partly offsetting Monday's strong gains.

The major averages all finished the day in negative territory. The Nasdaq slid 137.03 points or 0.7 percent to 20,916.55, the S&P 500 fell 30.75 points or 0.5 percent to 6,299.19 and the Dow edged down 61.90 points or 0.1 percent to 44,111.74.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid US pressure on India to stop buying oil from Russia, as well as OPEC's recent decision to boost production. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery slumped $1.05 or 1.58 percent to $65.24 per barrel.