Australian Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is sharply higher on Friday, recouping the slight losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 6,700 level, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, with strong gains in energy and iron ore miner stocks amid a spike in crude oil and metal prices. Financial stocks are also gaining.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 107.40 points or 1.62 percent to 6,750.00, after touching a high of 6,771.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 105.40 points or 1.54 percent to 6,939.90. Australian markets ended slightly lower on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Mineral Resources are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Rio Tinto is adding more than 1 percent. OZ Minerals and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy is gaining almost 3 percent, Beach energy is adding more than 4 percent, Woodside Energy is advancing almost 4 percent and Santos is rising more than 3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Zip is gaining almost 1 percent, WiseTech Global is gaining more than 3 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 1 percent. Appen is flat. Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Westpac are gaining 1.5 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are adding more than 1 percent each.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Newcrest Mining is losing almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is declining more than 2 percent, while Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are edging down 0.5 percent each. Resolute Mining is gaining more than 2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.631 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a substantial turnaround over the course of the trading session on Thursday following an early sell-off, stocks. The major averages climbed well off their lows of the session and firmly into positive territory.

The major averages finished the session not far off their best levels of the day. After plunging by nearly 550 points in early trading, the Dow spiked 827.87 points or 2.8 percent to 30,038.72. The Nasdaq also surged 232.05 points or 2.2 percent to 10,649.15, while the S&P 500 jumped 92.88 points or 2.6 percent to 3,669.91.

The major European markets also moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index surged by 1.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Thursday, gaining after three straight days of losses, as data showed a significant drop in distillate inventories in the U.S. in the week ended October 7. Oil prices drifted lower over the past three sessions amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to the rising possibility of a global recession. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures ended higher by $1.84 or about 2.1 percent at $89.11 a barrel.