Australian Markets Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slightly higher in choppy trading on Monday, snapping a four-session losing streak, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 8,750.00 level, with gains in energy, financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 11.20 points or 0.13 percent to 8,752.40, after hitting a low of 8,734.00 and a high of 8,757.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 11.10 points or 0.12 percent to 8,931.30. Australian stocks closed significantly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue is edging up 0.4 percent, while Mineral Resources is declining almost 2 percent, BHP Group is losing almost 1 percent and Rio Tinto is edging down 0.1 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Xero is gaining almost 3 percent. Zip is edging down 0.2 percent. Appen is flat.

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

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while National Australia Bank is losing almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in FleetPartners are soaring almost 10 percent after granting SG Fleet, ORIX, and the Sumitomo Consortium access to a deeper phase of due diligence to refine their takeover offers.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.715 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks continued to turn in a strong performance throughout the trading day on Friday after moving sharply higher early in the session. The major averages all showed significant moves to the upside, regaining ground following the recent downward trend.

The major averages ended the day off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Dow shot up 509.19 points or 1 percent to 52,573.29, the Nasdaq jumped 251.31 points or 1 percent to 26,333.04 and the S&P 500 advanced 65.28 points or 0.9 percent to 7,656.98.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both advanced by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped on Friday amid hopes of a possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on reports of a possible meeting between Iran and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to defuse the gulf crisis. West Texas Intermediate Crude for October delivery was down $2.63 or 2.57 percent at $99.85 per barrel.