Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - Recouping some of the losses in the previous four sessions, the Australian stock market is significantly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving to a tad below the 7,600 level, with gains in technology and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 50.30 points or 0.67 percent to 7,598.00, after touching a high of 7,621.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 52.80 points or 0.68 percent to 7,843.30. Australian stocks ended significantly lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, Rio Tinto is edging down 0.4 percent and BHP Group is losing almost 2 percent, while Mineral Resources is adding almost 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is gaining more than 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Woodside Energy is losing almost 1 percent and Santos is edging down 0.5 percent, while Origin Energy is gaining almost 3 percent and Beach energy is edging up 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Appen is surging more than 5 percent, Xero is adding almost 5 percent, Afterpay owner Block is advancing almost 4 percent and WiseTech Global is gaining more than 4 percent, while Zip is losing almost 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are all gaining almost 1 percent each.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is gaining almost 1 percent, Gold Road Resources is adding more than 1 percent, Newmont is edging up 0.4 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing more than 2 percent, while Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.1 percent.

In other news, shares in Altium are skyrocketing 28 percent after the software play received a A$9.1 billion takeover bid from Japanese group Renesas.

In economic news, the unemployment rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 4.1 percent in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That was above expectations for 4.0 percent and was up from 3.9 percent in December.

The Australian economy added just 500 jobs last month to 14,201,900 - well shy of forecasts for an increase of 26,400 jobs following the loss of 65,100 jobs in the previous month. The participation rate were 66.8 percent, unchanged but shy of forecasts for 66.9 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.649 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Wednesday, partly offsetting the sell-off seen in the previous session. The major averages all moved higher on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the rebound.

After plunging by 1.8 percent Tuesday's trading, the Nasdaq surged 203.55 points or 1.3 percent to 15,859.15. The S&P 500 also jumped 47.45 points or 1.0 percent to 5,000.62, while the Dow climbed 151.52 points or 0.4 percent at 38,424.27.

The major European markets all also have moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index has risen by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index are both up by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower on Wednesday, snapping a seven-day winning streak after data showed a big increase in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $1.23 or about 1.6 percent at $76.64 a barrel.