Australian Market Notably Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian market is trading notably higher on Thursday, reversing the slight losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,900 level, with gains across most sectors led by mining and technology stocks. Energy stocks are the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 48.80 points or 0.55 percent to 8,894.50, after touching a high of 8,906.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 50.10 points or 0.55 percent to 9,186.70. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is advancing almost 1 percent, BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent, Mineral Resources is adding more than 2 percent and Fortescue is rising more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly weak. Beach energy, Origin Energy and Santos are edging down 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Woodside Energy is flat.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining more than 2 percent, Appen is jumping almost 5 percent, Zip is edging up 0.4 percent and Xero is adding more than 1 percent, while WiseTech Global is losing more than 1 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Newmont is advancing almost 2 percent, Evolution Mining is gaining more than 2 percent, Northern Star Resources is adding almost 3 percent and Resolute Mining is up almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Dateline Resources are jumping more than 11 percent on news of an aggressive drilling program to enhance its gold and rare earth potential at its Colosseum Project.

Shares in Orthocell are soaring more than 8 percent on upbeat quarterly financial results, driven by the success of its nerve repair product Remplir.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.660 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks came under pressure early in the session on Wednesday but staged a significant turnaround over the course of the trading day. The major averages climbed well off their lows of the session and into positive territory.

The major averages gave back some ground going into the end the day still finished higher. The Nasdaq climbed 95.15 points or 0.4 percent to 22,755.16, the S&P 500 rose 22.74 points or 0.3 percent to 6,711.20 and the Dow inched up 43.21 points or 0.1 percent to 46,441.10.

The major European markets all also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both jumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices fell sharply again Wednesday on concerns of excess supply after OPEC said it will hike output more than expected in November. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down by $0.60 or 0.96 percent at $61.77 per barrel.