Australian Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading significantly higher on Wednesday, recovering from the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 7,100 level, following the mixed cues from global markets overnight, with gains across most sectors led by technology stocks. Gold miners were the weak spot amid tumbling gold prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 69.30 points or 0.98 percent to 7,130.90, after touching a high of 7,133.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 67.40 points or 0.93 percent to 7,337.20. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is gaining more than 2 percent, BHP Group is adding almost 1 percent and Rio Tinto is edging up 0.3 percent. Fortescue Metals is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos and Woodside Energy are edging up 0.1 to 0.2 percent each, while Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.4 percent. In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and WiseTech Global are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Appen and Xero are adding almost 2 percent each. Zip is losing more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining more than 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is adding almost 1 percent. Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is losing more than 1 percent, Newmont is declining almost 2 percent, Gold Road Resources is sliding almost 3 percent, Resolute Mining is slipping more than 2 percent and Evolution Mining is plunging more than 15 percent after it reportedly raised $525 million in a placing of 138.2 million new shares to institutional investors at $3.80 per share.

In other news, shares in Perpetual are gaining more than 4 percent after the fund manager announced a strategic review of its corporate trust and wealth management business.

In economic news, Australia's gross domestic product expanded a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent on quarter in the third quarter of 2023, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 0.3 percent and was down from 0.4 percent in the previous three months. On an annualized basis, GDP climbed 2.1 percent - unchanged from the second quarter and beating forecasts for a gain of 1.7 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.658 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Tuesday. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing narrowly mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 44.42 points or 0.3 percent to 14,229.91, the S&P 500 edged down 2.60 points or 0.1 percent to 4,567.18 and the Dow dipped 79.88 points or 0.2 percent to 36,124.56.

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index advanced by 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices dropped on Tuesday for a fourth straight session, on lingering concerns about the outlook for demand and on disappointment over the small size of additional output cuts announced by OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.72 or 1 percent at $72.32 a barrel.