Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is currently trading modestly 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 stay well above the 8,300.00 level, with gains across most sectors led by iron ore miners and technology stocks. Gold miners are the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 27.60 points or 0.33 percent to 8,338.00, after touching a high of 8,344.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 28.60 points or 0.33 percent to 8,586.00. Australian stocks closed modestly lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, Fortescue Metals is adding more than 1 percent and Rio Tinto is advancing almost 2 percent, while Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent. Oil stocks are higher. Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent, while Santos and Origin Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Beach energy is losing more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block and Zip are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Appen is advancing more than 4 percent. WiseTech Global and Xero are flat.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are losing more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining is declining almost 4 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.2 percent. Gold Road Resources is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac, National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Commonwealth Bank are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in Star Entertainment are tumbling more than 9 percent after the embattled casino operator warned shareholders that unless it finds a new source of funding, its ability to stay afloat is in question.

Shares in Iress jumped almost 4 percent after the software provider announced the sale of its superannuation business to Apex Group for $40 million in cash.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.620 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Friday, with the major averages more than offsetting the losses posted in the previous session. With the upward move, the Dow ended the day at its best closing level in a month.

The major averages pulled back off their best levels in the latter part of the session but remained firmly positive. The Nasdaq surged 291.91 points or 1.5 percent to 19,630.20, the S&P 500 jumped 59.32 points or 1.0 percent to 5,996.66 and the Dow climbed 334.70 points or 0.8 percent to 43,487.83.

The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index surged 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index shot up 1.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.0 percent.

Crude oil prices showed a notable move to the downside on Friday, extending the sharp pullback seen in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate for February delivery was down $0.80 or 1 percent to $77.88 a barrel on Friday; for the week, crude rose about 1 percent.