Australian Markets Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is notably higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,800.00 level, with gains across most sectors led by gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 41.20 points or 0.47 percent to 8,805.40, after touching a high of 8,805.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 45.60 points or 0.51 percent to 9,009.80. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue and BHP Group are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.3 percent and Mineral Resources is losing almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy, Santos and Woodside Energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are surging almost 5 percent each, while Zip is soaring almost 8 percent, Appen is gaining more than 1 percent and Xero is jumping more than 6 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Newmont and Resolute Mining are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Genesis Minerals is advancing almost 3 percent, Evolution Mining is adding more than 2 percent and Northern Star Resources is up almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging up 0.2 percent.

In other news, shares in Neuren Pharmaceuticals are skyrocketing more than 27 percent as its Rett syndrome drug Daybu moved a step closer to European approval after the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended the treatment for marketing authorisation.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.688 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Friday but largely maintained a negative bias before ending the day lower.

The Dow lost 44.49 points or 0.1 percent to 51,876.11, the Nasdaq decreased 60.98 points or 0.2 percent to 25,297.62 and the S&P 500 slipped 3.47 points or 0.1 percent to 7,354.02.

The major European markets also ended the day in the negative. The UK's FTSE 100 ended lower by 0.21 percent, Germany's DAX dropped 1.29 percent and France's CAC 40 shed 0.55 percent.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Friday as optimism increases on resumption of oil flow from the Arab region. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $2.60 or 3.62 percent at $69.32 per barrel.