Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 7,300 level, following the broadly positive cues from global markets on Friday, with gains in financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 38.80 points or 0.53 percent to 7,322.40, after touching a high of 7,336.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 36.20 points or 0.48 percent to 7,520.20. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is losing almost 2 percent, Fortescue Metals is declining more than 2 percent, BHP Group is down almost 1 percent and Mineral Resources is slipping more than 1 percent. OZ Minerals is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Beach energy are losing almost 1 percent each, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent. Woodside Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Appen and Xero are gaining almost 5 percent each, while Afterpay owner Block is surging more than 5 percent, WiseTech Global is adding almost 2 percent and Zip is up almost 1 percent.

Gold miners are mixed. Gold Road Resources and Evolution Mining are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.3 percent. Newcrest Mining and Resolute Mining are flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is gaining almost 1 percent and National Australia Bank is adding 1.5 percent, while Westpac and ANZ Banking are adding more than 1 percent each. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.674 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed another strong move to the upside during trading on Friday after turning positive over the course of Thursday's session. With the rally on the day, the major averages climbed further off their recent lows.

The major averages finished the session just off their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 387.40 points or 1.2 percent to 33,390.97, the Nasdaq soared 226.02 points or 2.0 percent to 11,689.01 and the S&P 500 surged 64.29 points or 1.6 percent to 4,045.64.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just above the unchanged line, the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.9 percent and the German DAX Index jumped by 1.6 percent.

Crude oil prices reversed an early sell-off after the United Arab Emirates denied a report that was thinking of leaving OPEC. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery surged $1.52 or 1.9 percent to $79.68 a barrel. For the week, crude oil spiked 4.4 percent.