Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is significantly higher on Monday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving up to a tad below the 7,700.00 level, with gains across all sectors led by mining and energy stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 52.10 points or 0.68 percent to 7,698.60, after touching a high of 7,712.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 54.30 points or 0.69 percent to 7,908.00. Australian stocks closed significantly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 3 percent, Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 2 percent, Rio Tinto is adding more than 1 percent and Mineral Resources is surging more than 5 percent. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Santos are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is adding almost 1 percent. Origin Energy is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 1 percent, Xero is edging up 0.5 percent and WiseTech Global is adding more than 1 percent, while Appen is losing almost 2 percent and Zip is sliding more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are higher. Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining are gaining more than 3 percent each, while Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.2 percent, Northern Star Resources is up more than 1 percent and Newmont is adding almost 4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in DroneShield are soaring almost 15 percent after the drone defence company announced it had received a package of five separate contracts totalling $32.2 million.

Shares in Neuren Pharmaceuticals are also soaring more than 16 percent after its upcoming Phase 3 trial for NNZ-2591, a potential treatment for Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS), has received the green light from the US FDA to proceed as planned.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.629 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Friday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. The major averages all showed strong moves to the upside, partly offsetting the substantial pullback seen during Thursday's session.

The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, hovering firmly in positive territory. The Nasdaq shot up 337.14 points or 2.1 percent to 16,724.46, the S&P 500 surged 95.31 points or 1.8 percent to 5.363.36 and the Dow jumped 619.05 points or 1.6 percent to 40,212.71.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.9 percent.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Friday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery surged $1.43 or to $61.50 a barrel, partly offsetting the $2.28 or 3.7 percent slump to $60.07 a barrel seen during Thursday's session.