Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - Recouping most of the losses in the previous session, the Australian stock market is notably higher on Tuesday, despite the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 7,000 mark, with gains across most sectors, led by miners and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 46.30 points or 0.66 percent to 7,033.90, after touching a high of 7,049.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 48.30 points or 0.67 percent to 7,241.10. Australian stocks closed significantly lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are edging up 0.3 percent each, while Mineral Resources is adding almost 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is gaining 1.5 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Santos and Beach energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while Woodside Energy is edging down 0.4 percent and Origin Energy is losing almost 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is adding almost 3 percent, WiseTech Global is gaining almost 1 percent, Appen is surging almost 6 percent, Zip is advancing more than 3 percent and Xero is edging up 0.1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star resources, Newmont and Resolute Mining are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Gold Road Resources and Evolution Mining are adding more than 1 percent each.

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

In other news, shares in Collins Foods are surging almost 11 percent after lifting its interim dividends.

Shares in Imugene are skyrocketing more than 26 percent on news it has been granted Fast Track designation from the US FDA for the clinical evaluation of its metastatic advanced solid tumours programme against a new form of cancer.

In economic news, the value of retail sales in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent on month in October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday - coming in at A$35.767 billion. That missed expectations for an increase of 0.2 percent and was down from 0.9 percent in September. On a yearly basis, retail sales rose 1.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.661 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Monday, extending the lackluster performance seen during last Friday's holiday-shortened session. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing modestly lower.

The Dow slipped 56.68 points or 0.2 percent to 35,333.47 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.91 points or 0.2 percent to 4,550.43, pulling back off their best closing levels in over three months, while the Nasdaq edged down 9.83 points or 0.1 percent to 14,241.02.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index all fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude Oil prices fell on Monday with traders speculating on the likely outcome of Thursday's OPEC meeting to discuss production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January fell $0.68 or 0.9 percent at $74.86 a barrel.