Australian Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading slightly higher on Wednesday, reversing some of the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying well above the 8,800 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in mining and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 11.60 points or 0.13 percent to 8,830.40, after touching a high of 8,839.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 12.20 points or 0.13 percent to 9,110.60. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Fortescue are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Rio Tinto is advancing more than 2 percent and Mineral Resources is soaring more than 9 percent after agreeing to sell a 30 percent stake in its lithium operations to South Korea's POSCO Holdings.

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

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are losing more than 1 percent each, while Xero and Zip are declining almost 2 perrcent each. WiseTech Global is down almost 1 perrcent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia bank is losing almost 2 percent and Commonwealth Bank is down more than 1 percent. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is advancing almost 2 percent. Newmont and Resolute Mining are up more than 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources and Genesis Minerals are gaining almost 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in ARN Media are tumbling more than 11 percent after it said full-year EBITDA was expected to be 25 to 27 per cent below last year amid the sharp weakness in the Australian advertising market in the second half of FY25 amid economic uncertainty.

In economic news, the total number of new home loans issued in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 6.4 percent on quarter in the third quarter of 2025, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at 141,470. That's up from 2.4 percent in the previous three months. On a yearly basis, loans were up 5.8 percent.

Investor home loans jumped 13.6 percent on quarter and 12.3 percent on year at 57,624. The value of new home loans climbed 9.6 percent on quarter and 13.2 percent on year to A$98.0 billion

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.652 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stock indexes moved in starkly opposite directions during trading on Tuesday following the rally seen to start the week. While the Dow extended the strong upward move seen on Monday and the S&P 500 recovered from early weakness, the tech-heavy NASDAQ has slipped back to the downside.

The Dow jumped 559.33 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 47,927.96, while the NASDAQ slumped 58.87 points or 0.25 percent to close at 23,468.30 and the S&P 500 rose 14.18 points or 0.21 percent to end at 6,846.61.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index rose 0.53 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed 1.15 percent and the French CAC 40 Index gained 1.25 percent.