Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading significantly higher on Monday, recouping the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving to be near the 8,100.00 level, with gains across most sectors led by energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 57.00 points or 0.71 percent to 8,080.90, after touching a high of 8,086.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 62.60 points or 0.76 percent to 8,311.70. Australian stocks closed slightly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Mineral Resources are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is gaining more than 1 percent. Rio Tinto is edging down 0.1 percent. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent, Woodside Energy is adding almost 2 percent and Origin Energy is edging up 0.3 percent, while Santos is losing more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent, Zip is is adding almost 4 percent and Appen is soaring more than 10 percent, while Afterpay owner Block and Xero are flat.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Newmont, Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is losing almost 4 percent. Resolute Mining is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining more than 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging up 0.5 percent and ANZ Banking is adding almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Kelsian Group are tumbling more than 19 percent after the bus and ferry operator flagged a major $185 million reinvestment into the company this year.

Shares in Aussie Broadband are surging more than 8 percent after it issued a 4 cent dividend to investors as full-year revenue jumped 26 percent and profits climbed 21 per cent.

Shares in NIB holdings are slumping more than 15 percent despite the company reporting a 67.4 percent increase in full-year net profit and a 9.3 percent rise in group revenue.

Shares in Tyro are surging almost 13 percent as its after-tax profits quadrupled and chief executive Jon Davey flagged it would enter "two new verticals" over the next 12 months.

Shares in Kogan.com are climbing more than 9 percent as the online retailer declared a final dividend of 7.5 cents after it narrowly returned to profitability in 2023-24.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.679 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Friday following the pullback seen over the course of the previous session. The major averages all moved sharply higher, with the Dow and the S&P 500 reaching their best closing levels since reaching record highs in mid-July.

The major averages gave back ground after an early rally but showed another notable advance late in the session. The Dow jumped 462.30 points or 1.1 percent to 41,175.08, the Nasdaq surged 258.44 points or 1.5 percent to 17,877.79 and the S&P shot up 63.97 points or 1.2 percent to 5,634.61.

The major European markets all also moved higher on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.5 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index advanced by 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices showed another strong move to the upside on Friday following the rebound in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery surged $1.82 or 2.5 percent to $74.83 a barrel after jumping $1.08 or 1.5 percent to $73.01 a barrel during Thursday's session. But the price of crude oil fell by 0.9 for the week due to sell-off earlier in the week.