Australian Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is sharply higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 7,200 level, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, with gains across most sectors, led by gold miners and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 88.40 points or 1.24 percent to 7,224.10, after touching a high of 7,239.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 90.30 points or 1.23 percent to 7,431.80. Australian stocks ended slightly higher on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining 1.5 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 2 percent, while Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are advancing almost 1 percent each.

Oil stocks are higher. Santos and Woodside Energy are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Origin Energy and Beach energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.2 percent, Zip is gaining more than 1 percent, WiseTech Global is adding almost 2 percent and Xero is advancing more than 2 percent, while Appen is losing almost 1 percent.

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

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is surging more than 7 percent, Newcrest Mining is adding almost 4 percent, Resolute Mining is advancing almost 7 percent, Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 5 percent and Gold Road Resources is up more than 5 percent. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.679 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday, extending the upward move seen to start the week. With the continued advance, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended the session at their best closing levels in over a year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 158.26 points or 1.2 percent to 13,918.96 and the S&P 500 climbed 32.90 points or 0.7 percent to 4,472.16. The narrower Dow pulled back well off its best levels of the day but still closed up 86.01 points or 0.3 percent at 34,347.43.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index shot up by 1.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index surged by 1.6 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

Crude oil futures showed a notable move to the upside during trading on Wednesday, adding to the surge seen in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended higher by $0.92 or 1.2 percent at $72.71 a barrel.