Australian Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is sharply higher on Thursday, adding to the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 7,800 level, with gains across most sectors led by gold miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 92.30 points or 1.19 percent to 7,846.00, after touching a high of 7,854.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 91.90 points or 1.15 percent to 8,112.80. Australian stocks ended notably higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are gaining almost 1 percent each, while BHP Group is adding more than 1 percent. Mineral Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy and Santos are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each, while Beach energy is declining almost 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging up 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Xero is advancing more than 4 percent and Appen is adding more than 2 percent, while WiseTech Global and Zip are gaining almost 2 percent each. Afterpay owner Block is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are all gaining more than 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining almost 3 percent, Resolute Mining is surging almost 7 percent, Gold Road Resources is adding more than 4 percent, Newmont is up more than 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is advancing more than 3 percent.

In other news, shares in Aristocrat Leisure are soaring 9 percent after the Autobarn-owner posted better than expected earnings and upped its dividend 20 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.671 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Wednesday with traders reacting positively to closely watched consumer price inflation data. The major averages added to Tuesday's gains, setting new record closing highs.

The major averages saw further upside late in the session, reaching new highs for the day. The tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 231.21 points or 1.4 percent to 16,742.39, the S&P 500 shot up 61.47 points or 1.2 percent to 5,308.15 and the Dow jumped 349.89 points or 0.9 percent to 39,908.00.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both edged up 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday, buoyed by soft inflation data and a report showing a bigger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended up by $0.61 or 0.78 percent at $78.63 a barrel.