Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading significantly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to a tad near the 8,500 level, with gains in mining and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 76.50 points or 0.91 percent to 8,493.40, after touching a high of 8,499.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 74.10 points or 0.85 percent to 8,757.50. Australian stocks ended notaby higher on Wednesday.

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

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Santos are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Beach energy is losing more than 3 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Appen are declining more than 1 percent each, while Zip is losing almost 2 percent. WiseTech Global is gaining more than 1 percent and Xero is edging up 0.1 percent.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining almost 2 percent each, while National Australia Bank is adding more than 2 percent and , Commonwealth Bank is up 1.5 percent. Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources and Newmont are advancing more than 2 percent each, while Evolution Mining is gaining almost 2 percent, Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.4 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.628 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks came under pressure early in the session on Wednesday but showed a significant rebound over the course of the trading day. The major averages climbed well off their worst levels of the day and into positive territory.

The major averages reached new highs for the session going into the close of trading. The Dow advanced 317.24 points or 0.7 percent to 44,873.28, the S&P 500 climbed 23.60 points or 0.4 percent to 6,061.48 and the Nasdaq rose 38.31 points or 0.2 percent to 19,692.33.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices settled sharply lower Wednesday after data showed a sharp jump in U.S. crude inventories last week. Concerns about the outlook for oil demand also weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March settled at $71.03 a barrel, losing $1.67 or 2.29 percent.