Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading modestly higher on Wednesday, recouping the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,700 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in technology and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 21.10 points or 0.27 percent to 7,758.20, after touching a high of 7,761.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 15.80 points or 0.20 percent to 8,009.90. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing more than 1 percent, while BHP Group, Mineral Resources and Fortescue Metals are down almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos and Woodside Energy are losing almost 1 percent each, while Beach energy is declining almost 2 percent and Origin Energy is edging down 0.3 percent. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent each, while Zip is adding more than 1 percent. Appen and Xero are flat. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging up 0.5 percent each.

Among gold miners, Newmont is losing more than 3 percent, Resolute Mining is declining almost 4 percent, Evolution Mining is slipping 1.5 percent, Gold Road Resources is falling more than 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is down almost 1 percent.

In economic news, the services sector in Australia continued to expand in May, albeit at a slower rate, the latest survey from Judo Bank revealed on Wednesday with a services PMI score of 52.5. That's down from 53.6 in April, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.665 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday before eventually ending the day modestly higher. The major averages all finished the day in positive territory following the mixed performance seen on Monday.

The Dow climbed 140.26 points or 0.4 percent to 38,711.29, the Nasdaq rose 28.38 points or 0.2 percent to 16,857.05 and the S&P 500 edged up 7.94 points or 0.2 percent to 5,291.34.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about possible oversupply in the market after OPEC decided to phase out voluntary production cuts from October. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July fell $0.97 or 1.3 percent at $73.25 a barrel.