Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is significantly higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving down to nearly the 6,900 level, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with strong gains in materials and energy stocks amid the spike in commodity prices partially offset by weakness in financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 54.50 points or 0.80 percent to 6,865.40, after touching a high of 6,873.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 78.90 up 56.60 points or 0.81 percent to 7,061.70. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 3 percent, Fortescue Metals is adding almost 1 percent, Rio Tinto is up more than 1 percent and Mineral Resources advancing almost 4 percent, while OZ Minerals is edging down 0.2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is adding more than 2 percent, while Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Santos are gaining almost 2 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 2 percent, WiseTech Global is adding almost 2 percent and Zip is advancing more than 2 percent, while Xero is slipping almost 1 percent and Appen is edging down 0.4 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is losing more than 1 percent, Commonwealth Bank is slipping almost 1 percent and Westpac is declining more than 1 percent. ANZ Banking is plunging 5.5 percent after it was fined $25 million for misleading customers on benefits such as fee waivers and interest rate discounts. However, the bank reported an annual profit that beat estimates.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is gaining 3.5 percent, Newcrest Mining is adding almost 3 percent, Gold Road Resources is surging almost 5 percent and Evolution Mining is advancing 4.5 percent. Resolute Mining is flat.

In other news, shares in Lynas Rare Earths are soaring almost 8 percent after the rare-earths miner reported a 35 percent jump in first-quarter revenue on strong rare earths demand.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.649 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks indexes went on a roller coaster ride over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after closing sharply higher for three straight sessions. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed wild swings after an early sell-off before eventually ending the session down 228.12 points or 2.0 percent to 10,970.99.

The S&P 500 also slid 28.51 points or 0.7 percent to 3,830.60, while the narrower Dow inched up 2.37 points or less than a tenth of a percent to a new one-month closing high of 31,839.11.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday, buoyed by data showing a drop in gasoline stockpiles and a weak U.S. dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December spiked $2.59 or 3 percent at $87.91 a barrel.