Australian Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - Adding to the gains in the previous session, the Australian stock market is slightly higher on Friday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above a tad below the 7,700 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 0.20 points or 0.00 percent to 7,698.90, after touching a high of 7,737.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 1.7 points or 0.02 percent to 7,961.20. Australian markets ended notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and BHP Group are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Fortescue Metals and Mineral Resources are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Beach energy are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Santos is adding almost 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is losing almost 1 percent, while Zip is surging almost 8 percent, Afterpay owner Block is advancing more than 1 percent and Xero is adding more than 3 percent. Appen is flat.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging down 0.1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging up 0.1 percent. Commonwealth Bank is flat. Gold miners are mostly higher. Gold Road Resources is gaining more than 1 percent, Newmont is surging more than 4 percent, Evolution Mining is edging up 0.5 percent, Northern Star Resources is advancing almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is adding almost 4 percent.

In other news, shares in Life 360 are skyrocketing 30 percent after the mobile tracking app reported a sharply narrower full-year loss on strong user and sales growth.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia fell into contraction territory in February, the latest survey from Judo Bank revealed on Friday with a PMI score of 47.8. That's down from 50.1 in January and it slips beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.650 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Thursday but largely maintained a positive bias before ending the day mostly higher. The major averages all moved to the upside, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs.

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 reached new highs for the session in late-day trading before giving back some ground going into the close. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 144.18 points or 0.9 percent to 16,091.92, the S&P 500 climbed 26.51 points or 0.5 percent to 5,06.27 and the narrower Dow closed up 47.37 points or 0.1 percent at 38,996.39.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday as concerns about reduced fuel demand outweighing hopes for the likely extension of production cuts by OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April fell $0.28 or 0.4 percent at $78.26 a barrel.