Australian Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading slightly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving a tad above the 8,600 level, with gains in gold miners and eergy partially offset by weakness in iron ore miners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 8.30 points or 0.09 percent to 8,600.40, after touching a high of 8,613.60 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 5.90 points or 0.08 percent to 8,825.60. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are losing almost 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is declining almost 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is slipping 2.5 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos is gaining more than 1 percent, Origin Energy is adding almost 1 percent, Beach energy is rising more than 4 percent and Woodside Energy is advancing almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Xero is up almost 1 percent, Zip is gaining more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is edging up 0.2 percent, while Appen is losing almost 3 percent and Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.2 to 0.3 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 1 percent, Newmont is adding almost 2 percent, Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.2 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing almost 3 percent, while Evolution Mining is edging down 0.2 percent.

In other news, shares in Cettire are tumbling more than 20 percent after the online luxury products retailer released another bleak trading update, with sales and margins lower than expected for the year-to-date period. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after moving to the upside early in the session. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and the session in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 99.11 points or 0.5 percent to 19,615.88, the S&P 500 dipped 16.57 points or 0.3 percent to 6,022.24 and the Dow edged down 1.10 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 42,865.77.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices surged on Wednesday amid the trade talks between the U.S. and China, as well as a fresh stand-off between the U.S. and Iran over a nuclear deal. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery closed up by $3.32 or 5.11 percent to settle at $68.30 per barrel.