Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading significantly higher on Friday, 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 8,650 level, with gains across most sectors led by gold miners and technology stocks. Energy stocks were the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 69.20 points or 0.81 percent to 8,662.10, after touching a high of 8,662.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 73.40 points or 0.83 percent to 8,893.00. Australian stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are advancing more than 1 percent each, while BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Fortescue is adding almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is declining 1.5 percent and Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent, while Beach energy and Santos are losing almost 1 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is advancing almost 4 percent, Xero is gaining almost 1 percent, Zip is adding 2.5 percent and Appen is edging up 0.4 percent, while WiseTech Global is edging down 0.3 percent.

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

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources is jumping almost 5 percent, Resolute Mining is surging almost 6 percent and Genesis Minerals is gaining more than 6 percent, while Newmont and Evolution Mining are advancing more than 4 percent each.

In other news, shares in Tourism Holdings are skyrocketing more than 31 percent after BGH Capital and Queensland brothers Karl and Luke Trouchet sweetened their offer to NZ$3.10 per share to buy the dual Australian and New Zealand-listed campervan business.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.716 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved to the downside in early trading on Thursday but showed a significant turnaround over the course of the session. The major averages climbed well off their lows of the session and into positive territory, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the rebound.

The major averages once again finished the day at new record closing highs. The Nasdaq advanced 242.74 points or 0.9 percent to 26,917.47, the S&P 500 climbed 43.27 points or 0.6 percent to 7,563.63 and the Dow inched up 24.69 points or 0.1 percent to 50,668.97.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index fell by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices handed back most of their early gains on Thursday after reports of the understanding between the U.S. and Iran. After surging as much as $3.84 or 4.3 percent to a high of $92.52 a barrel, crude for July delivery ended up $0.32 or 0.4 percent at $89 a barrel.