Australian Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slightly higher on Friday, adding to the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying a tad below the 8,000 mark, with gains in gold miners and financial stocks partially offset losses in energy stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 5.40 points or 0.07 percent to 7,987.80, after touching a high of 8,002.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 4.00 points or 0.05 percent to 8,191.70. Australian markets ended modestly higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are edging down 0.1 percent each, while Mineral Resources and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is down more than 1 percent, Santos is edging down 0.3 percent and Beach energy is losing almost 2 percent, while Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.3 percent and Zip is gaining almost 1 percent, while WiseTech Global is edging down 0.1 percent, Xero is losing almost 1 percent and Appen is declining almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging up 0.4 percent. Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Newmont and Gold Road Resources are edging up 0.3 percent each. Resolute Mining is adding more than 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.673 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in another mixed performance during trading on Thursday after ending yesterday's lackluster session narrowly mixed. While the S&P 500 closed lower for the third straight session, the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day in positive territory.

The Nasdaq bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing up 43.37 points or 0.3 percent at 17,127.66. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 fell 16.66 points or 0.3 percent to 5,503.41 and the Dow slid 219.22 points or 0.5 percent to 40,755.75.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.9 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower on Thursday due to concerns about the outlook for demand, although the downside was limited by reports that OPEC has postponed plans to boost production next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $0.05 at $69.15 a barrel, the lowest settlement in about nine months.