Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is significantly higher on Friday, recouping the losses in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving to near the 8,400 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining, financial and energy stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 67.00 points or 0.81 percent to 8,390.00, after touching a high of 8,323.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 65.50 points or 0.77 percent to 8,632.50. Australian markets ended slightly lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is advancing more than 4 percent.

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

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block is advancing almost 3 percent, Zip is adding almost 1 percent and Xero is edging up 0.2 percent, while Appen is losing more than 2 percent and WiseTech Global is tumbling more than 9 percent after the logistics software maker trimmed its annual earnings and revenue forecast.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank Westpac and National Australia Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging up 0.4 percent. Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Newmont and Northern Star Resources are adding more than 1 percent each. Gold Road Resources is gaining almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Megaport are slipping almost 11 percent even though the software company reaffirmed its annual earnings guidance.

Shares in a2 Milk Co. are jumping almost 14 percent after it raised its revenue annual guidance and announced it would start paying dividends.

In economic news, the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to contract in November, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from Judo Bank revealed on Friday with a manufacturing PMI score of 49.4. That's up from 47.3 in October, although it remains beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also showed that the services PMI fell to 49.6 from 51.0 in the previous month. The composite PMI fell to 49.4 in November from 50.2 on October.

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

On Wall Street, stocks saw considerable volatility early in the session on Thursday but moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day. The major averages all finished the day in positive territory, with the Dow posting a standout gain.

The Dow jumped 461.88 points or 1.1 percent to 43,870.35 and the S&P 500 climbed 31.60 points or 0.5 percent to 5,948.71, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a much more modest gain, inching up 6.28 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 18,972.42.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index edged up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday on weak demand concerns and data showing an increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December slipped $0.52 or 0.75 percent at $68.87 a barrel.