Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is currently trading modestly higher on Monday, extending the slight gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving up to stay above the 8,200.00 level, with gains in iron ore miners and technology stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 11.60 points or 0.14 percent to 8,222.90, after touching a high of 8,225.80 and a low of 8,199.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 12.20 points or 0.14 percent to 8,479.50. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is edging down 0.5 percent. Oil stocks are mostly lower. Origin Energy is edging down 0.2 percent and Beach energy is declining more than 1 percent, while Santos and Woodside Energy are losing almost 1 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Xero is adding more than 2 percent, Appen is edging up 0.3 percent and Zip is advancing more than 6 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are losing almost 2 percent each, while Resolute Mining is down almost 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is declining almost 5 percent. Newmont is gaining more than 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Westpac and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.660 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in another mixed performance during trading on Friday after ending Thursday's session on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq added to yesterday's strong gain, the Dow extended its losing streak to five sessions.

The Nasdaq ended the day up 103.12 points or 0.6 percent at 18,518.61, while the Dow slid 259.96 points or 0.6 percent to 42,114.40 and the S&P 500 edged down 1.74 points or less than tenth of a percent to 5,808.12.

The major European markets also ended the day narrowly mixed. While the German DAX Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Friday amid worries about geopolitical tensions and for potential output adjustments from OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $1.69 or 2.3 percent at $71.78 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 3.8 percent in the week.