Australian Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slightly higher in choppy trading on Thursday, recouping some of the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,300 level, following the mostly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, aided by gains in financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 4.80 points or 0.07 percent to 7,312.60, after touching a high of 7,317.10 and a low of 7,289.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 10.00 points or 0.13 percent to 7,513.90. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while BHP Group is losing 2.5 percent. Mineral Resources is gaining almost 2 percent. OZ Minerals is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Woodside Energy are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Santos is adding almost 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Appen are surging more than 7 percent, Zip is adding almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is gaining 2.5 percent. Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.2 percent.

Xero is surging more than 7 percent after the cloud accounting platform said it will shed up to 800 jobs or about 16 percent of its workforce. It also said it would exit its Sydney-based cloud lending platform Waddle.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while National Australia Bank is gaining more than 1 percent and Westpac is adding almost 1 percent. Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources, Gold Road Resources and Evolution Mining are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Newcrest Mining is gaining almost 1 percent. Resolute Mining is losing more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Myer Holdings are soaring almost 13 percent after the department store chain announced that its half-yearly profits doubled.

In economic news, the total number of building permits issued in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 27.6 percent on month in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - standing at 12,065. That was in line with expectations following the 15.3 percent increase in December.

On a yearly basis, total permits fell 8.4 percent, permits for houses dropped 12.0 percent and permits for non-houses eased 0.3 percent. The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of total building approved fell 18.6 percent in January, following a 1.0 percent rise in December.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.659 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday following the sell-off seen in the previous session. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the session mixed. While the Dow slipped 58.06 points or 0.2 percent to 32,798.40, the S&P 500 crept up 5.64 points or 0.1 percent to 3,992.01 and the Nasdaq rose 45.67 points or 0.4 percent to 11,576.00.

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil prices slipped on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about outlook for energy demand following Powell's remarks to Congress. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.92 or 1.2 percent at $76.66 a barrel.