Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading significantly higher on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving a tad above the 8,200 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across all sectors led by technology and financial stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 68.70 points or 0.85 percent to 8,200.50, after touching a high of 8,206.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 69.70 points or 0.83 percent to 8,457.50. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

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

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.1 percent and Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent, while Santos is edging down 0.1 percent. Beach energy is flat. In the tech space, Zip is surging almost 7 percent, Appen is advancing more than 6 percent, WiseTech Global is adding more than 1 percent and Xero is gaining more than 4 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is adding more than 1 percent and ANZ Banking is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Newmont are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Gold Road Resources and Northern Star Resources are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.659 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of Monday's session before closing moderately lower but showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq helped lead the way higher.

The major averages ended the day off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Nasdaq surged 259.19 points or 1.4 percent to 18,439.17, the S&P 500 shot up 70.07 points or 1.2 percent to 5,782.76 and the Dow jumped 427.28 points or 1.0 percent to 42,221.88.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. The German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.5 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session as traders reacted positively to OPEC's decision to delay production increases, while a weaker dollar also supported prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $0.52 or 0.73 percent at $71.99 a barrel.