Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is notably higher on Thursday, adding to the gains in the previous four sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving to near the 7,900 level, with gains in technology and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in iron ore miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 48.00 points or 0.61 percent to 7,898.70, after touching a high of 7,896.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 48.10 points or 0.60 percent to 8,118.30. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is losing more than 2 percent and BHP Group is down almost 1 percent, while Fortescue Metals and Mineral Resources are declining more than 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is gaining more than 1 percent and Santos is adding almost 1 percent. Beach energy is flat. Origin Energy are tumbling almost 9 percent after its chief executive Frank Calabria warned profits in energy markets for the coming year would be softer, despite reporting upbeat results for the full year.

In the tech space, WiseTech Global is adding almost 1 percent, Appen is edging up 0.5 percent, Xero is gaining more than 1 percent and Zip is advancing almost 2 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 1 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is declining almost 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.1 percent, while Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.3 percent. Newmont and Resolute Mining are gaining almost 1 percent each.

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

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Wednesday but managed to end the day mostly higher. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both closed higher for the fifth consecutive session.

The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing in positive territory. The Dow climbed 242.75 points or 0.6 percent to 40,008.39 and the S&P 500 rose 20.78 points or 0.4 percent to 5,455.21, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a more modest gain, inching up 4.99 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 17,192.60.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index increased by 0.6 percent and the German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by official data showing an unexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended August 9th and a recent downward revision in the oil demand forecast from the International Energy Agency (IEA). West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down by $1.37 or about 1.75% at $76.98 a barrel.