Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Extending the gains in the previous session, the Australian stock market is significantly higher on Friday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 7,900 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 68.50 points or 0.87 percent to 7,958.10, after touching a high of 7,959.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 68.50 points or 0.84 percent to 8,201.90. Australian markets ended significantly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is gaining almost 1 percent, Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.5 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 2 percent, while BHP Group is edging down 0.4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy, Beach energy and Santos are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Zip is adding almost 2 percent. Xero is losing almost 1 percent and WiseTech Global is declining almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is adding almost 2 percent. Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining is gaining 2.5 percent, Gold Road Resources is up more than 2 percent, Northern Star Resources is adding 3.5 percent, Resolute Mining is surging almost 6 percent and Newmont is advancing almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.676 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial downturn over the course of the trading session on Thursday, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 pulling back sharply after reaching new record intraday highs in early trading.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a particularly steep loss on the day, plunging 364.04 points or 2.0 percent to 18,283.41, while the S&P 500 slumped 49.37 points or 0.9 percent to 5,584.54. The narrower Dow, on the other hand, spent most of the day lingering near the unchanged line before closing up 32.39 points or 0.1 percent at 39,753.85.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both climbed by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Thursday, lifted by hopes of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve after the encouraging inflation data. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.52 at $82.62 a barrel.