Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading notably higher on Wednesday, recouping the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving to stay below the 7,800 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 44.40 points or 0.58 percent to 7,771.20, after touching a high of 7,784.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 44.60 points or 0.56 percent to 8,040.30. Australian stocks ended modestly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 3 percent and Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 2 percent, while Mineral Resources and Rio Tinto are adding more than 1 percent each.

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

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.2 percent.

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

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.663 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Tuesday before eventually ending the day mostly higher. The major averages all moved to the upside, with the Dow bouncing back after snapping an eight-day winning streak on Monday.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher, advancing 122.94 points or 0.8 percent to a new record closing high of 16,511.18. The S&P 500 climbed 25.26 points or 0.5 percent to 5,246.68 and the Dow rose 126.60 points or 0.3 percent to 39,558.11.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also ended the day narrowly mixed. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both crept up by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower Tuesday as data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices raised concerns that Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for a longer period. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June sank $1.10 or about 1.4 percent at $78.02 a barrel.