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 up to near the 9,050 level, with gains across most sectors led by gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 77.40 points or 0.86 percent to 9,045.10, after touching a high of 9,059.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 79.10 points or 0.87 percent to 9,201.80. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are adding almost 2 percent each, while BHP Group is gaining almost 3 percent. Fortescue is edging down 0.1 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is gaining almost 1 percent, Zip is surging more than 6 percent and Appen is advancing almost 3 percent, while Xero is down more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is losing more than 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 2 percent, Evolution Mining is advancing more than 3 percent, Newmont is surging almost 5 percent, Resolute Mining is spiking more than 5 percent and Genesis Minerals is adding almost 4 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.703 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Thursday, largely offsetting the sell-off seen late in the previous session. The major averages showed a strong move to the upside early in the session and remained firmly positive throughout the day.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq helped lead the way higher, spiking 679.24 points or 2.8 percent to 25,122.18. The S&P 500 also shot up 121.48 points or 1.7 percent to 7,437.63 and the Dow jumped 613.92 points or 1.2 percent to 52,508.06.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.9 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.6 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices slipped on Thursday as ongoing talks between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz management induced positivity on the resumption of the free flow of gulf oil. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $0.65 or 0.77 percent at $83.81 per barrel.