Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading notably higher on Wednesday, adding to the gains in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving to near the 7,900 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by strength in gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 53.20 points or 0.68 percent to 7,880.00, after touching a high of 7,883.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 59.00 points or 0.73 percent to 8,101.20. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is losing almost 1 percent, while Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.3 percent and Mineral Resources is advancing almost 2 percent. Rio Tinto Is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent, Woodside Energy is edging up 0.1 percent and Beach energy is adding almost 1 percent, while Santos is edging down 0.1 percent. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent, Zip is advancing more than 4 percent and Appen is soaring 10.5 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are adding more than 1 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

Among gold miners, Gold Road Resources is advancing almost 3 percent, Newmont is edging up 0.3 percent and Resolute Mining is gaining almost 2 percent. Northern Star Resources is flat. Evolution Mining is surging almost 9 percent after posting a 158 percent jump in annual profit.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.664 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday following the lackluster performance seen in the previous session. The major averages all showed strong moves to the upside after ending Monday's trading narrowly mixed.

The major averages saw continued strength going into the close, ending the day near their highs of the session. The Nasdaq soared 407.00 points or 2.4 percent to 17,187.61, the S&P 500 surged 90.04 points or 1.7 percent to 5,434.43 and the Dow jumped 408.63 points or 1.0 percent to 39,765.64.

The major European markets also moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index advanced by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index increased by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday as concerns about the outlook for global demand outweighed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and likely disruptions in supply. West Teas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.71 or about 2.1% at $78.35 a barrel, snapping a five-day winning streak.