Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably higher on Monday, adding to the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,800.00 level, with gains in financial and technology stocks.

Traders look ahead to the Reserve Bank of Australia's meeting on Tuesday, where the RBA is widely expected to hold interest rates following a hot inflation report.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 40.50 points or 0.46 percent to 8,828.20, after touching a high of 8,828.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 40.00 points or 0.44 percent to 9,119.20. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is slipping 1.5 percent, while BHP Group and Fortescue are losing almost 1 percent each. Mineral Resources is gaining almost 1 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Xero are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Appen is adding more than 1 percent and Zip is advancing almost 2 percent. WiseTech Global is edging down 0.2 percent.

Gold miners are mixed. Evolution Mining and Newmont are adding more than 2 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.2 percent. Resolute Mining is flat. Gold Road Resources is suspended.

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

In other news, shares in Novonix are jumping more than 16 percent after the battery and technology company delivered its first mass production of synthetic graphite to a top US client and flagging more.

Shares in New Zealand's Synlait Milk are soared almost 17 percent after the New Zealand-based dairy processing company agreed to sell its North Island assets to healthcare company Abbott for NZ$307 million or $270 million.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Friday after turning in a lackluster performance early in the session. The major averages all moved to the upside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq rejoining the Dow and the S&P 500 in positive territory after spending some time below the unchanged line.

The major averages all finished the day firmly in positive territory. The Dow advanced 299.97 points or 0.7 percent to 46,247.29, the S&P 500 climbed 38.98 points or 0.6 percent to 6,643.70 and the Nasdaq rose 99.37 points or 0.4 percent to 22,484.07.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices advanced on Friday as Russia restricted fuel exports by introducing a partial ban on diesel exports until the end of 2025. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.59 or 0.91 percent at $65.57 per barrel.