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 above the 8,850 level to fresh all-time highs, with gains in mining, energy and financial stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 47.60 points or 0.54 percent to 8,874.70, after touching a fresh all-time high of 8,891.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 50.20 points or 0.55 percent to 9,153.30. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.3 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing more than 2 percent and Fortescue is gaining more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is losing almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent, Santos is edging up 0.4 percent and Origin Energy is surging almost 7 percent on upbeat full-year results. Woodside Energy is flat.

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

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking is gaining more than 2 percent each, while Westpac is surging 5.5 percent on upbeat third-quarter results. Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.2 percent, while Newmont and Evolution Mining are losing almost 1 percent each. Resolute Mining is flat.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.655 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday but managed to close mostly higher after initially extending the rally seen during Tuesday's session. Despite pulling back well off their highs of the session, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 still reached new record closing highs.

The Nasdaq inched up 31.24 points or 0.1 percent to 21,713.14 and the S&P 500 rose 20.82 points or 0.3 percent to 6,466.58, while the narrower Dow posted a more significant gain, jumping 463.66 points or 1.0 percent to 44,922.27.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both advanced by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday after the International Energy Agency projected oversupply in the market this year due to surging supply from oil producers. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $0.55 or 0.87 percent at $62.62 per barrel.