Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading significantly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 7,900 level, with gains across most sectors led by energy and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 67.10 points or 0.85 percent to 7,921.20, after touching a high of 7,922.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 67.00 points or 0.83 percent to 8,149.10. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Mineral Resources is gaining 2.5 percent and Rio Tinto is edging up 0.2 percent, while Fortescue Metals is declining more than 1 percent. BHP Group is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos, Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Beach energy is adding almost 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 3 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent, while Appen and WiseTech Global are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each. Zip is flat.

Gold miners are mixed. Evolution Mining is losing more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is declining almost 2 percent, while Northern Star resources is edging up 0.2 percent and Newmont is advancing more than 2 percent. Gold Road Resources is slipping almost 5 percent after it warned of lower expected output from its Gruyere joint venture in the March quarter.

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

In other news, shares in New Hope Corp. are jumping almost 8 percent after the coal miner grew interim profit by more than a third, boosted its dividend and announced a $100 million share buyback.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.638 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks continued to regain ground during trading on Monday after rebounding last Friday but still posting steep weekly losses. The major averages all moved to the upside over the course of the session.

The major averages pulled back well off their highs going into the end of trading but remained in positive territory. The Dow jumped 353.44 points or 0.9 percent to 41,841.63, the S&P 500 climbed 36.18 points or 0.6 percent to 5,675.12 and the Nasdaq rose 54.58 points or 0.3 percent to 17,808.66.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index increased by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices rose on Monday on hopes of improved demand from China after plans to boost consumer spending, and on possible supply disruptions due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $0.40 or 0.6 percent at $67.58 a barrel.