Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading significantly higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,950 level, with gains in energy and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 86.80 points or 0.98 percent to 8,978.60, after touching a high of 8,981.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 83.00 points or 0.92 percent to 9,095.60. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, and BHP Group is edging up 0.3 percent. Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are losing almost 2 percent each, while Fortescue is declining almost 1 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay and Square-owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent and Xero is losing almost 1 percent, while Zip is slipping almost 5 percent, Appen is plunging almost 17 percent and WiseTech Global is adding almost 1 percent.

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

Gold miners are mostly lower. Genesis Minerals is down more than 1 percent, Evolution Mining is edging down 0.3 percent, Resolute Mining is declining more than 4 percent and Newmont is losing almost 1 percent, while Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Coles are plunging almost 12 percent after the supermarket giant reported downbeat first-quarter trading update and profit warning.

Shares in Reece are jumping almost 10 percent following the release of its first-quarter sales revenue update.

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

On Wall Street, stocks moved lower during trading on Thursday, after trending higher over the past few sessions. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a particularly steep drop on the day.

The Nasdaq tumbled 365.13 points or 1.4 percent to 26,184.72, giving back ground after surging by 2.3 percent over the three previous sessions. The S&P 500 also dipped 23.59 points or 0.3 percent to 7,720.39, while the Dow fell 132.54 points or 0.3 percent to 52,342.56.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 1.1 percent and the German DAX Index surged by 1.3 percent.

Crude oil prices moved lower on Thursday on expectations of a possible de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict as Qatar presses Iran to negotiate with the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.79 or 0.77 percent at $101.99 per barrel.