Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is notably higher on Thursday, recouping the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 8,000 mark, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 51.00 points or 0.64 percent to 8,038.90, after touching a high of 8,040.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 57.60 points or 0.70 percent to 8,252.80. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is gaining more than 1 percent, Mineral Resources is surging more than 5 percent and Fortescue Metals is adding almost 1 percent, while BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining almost 1 percent, Woodside Energy is edging up 0.4 percent and Origin Energy is adding more than 1 percent, while Santos is flat.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 4 percent, Xero is adding more than 1 percent, Appen is surging almost 6 percent, WiseTech Global is up 2.5 percent and Zip is advancing more than 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Westpac is adding more than 1 percent and ANZ Banking is edging up 0.5 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Resolute Mining is advancing more than 3 percent and Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 1 percent. Newmont is losing more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.668 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower early in the session on Wednesday but showed a substantial turnaround over the course of the trading day. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the recovery, with all of the major averages ending the day in positive territory.

After tumbling by as much as 1.4 percent in early trading, the Nasdaq surged 369.65 points or 2.2 percent to 17,395.53. The S&P 500 also jumped 58.61 points or 1.1 percent to 5,554.13, while the Dow rose 124.75 points or 0.3 percent to 40,861.71 after hitting its lowest intraday level in almost a month.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices surged higher on Wednesday, recovering from a three-year low in the previous session thanks to fears of prolonged production shutdowns in the offshore oil patch due to Hurricane Francine. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended up by $1.56 or 2.37 percent at $67.31 a barrel.