Asian Markets Trade Mostly Higher

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Wednesday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Japanese market closed for a holiday, and as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched US monthly jobs report later in the day that could influence the US Fed's outlook for interest rates. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday.

Australian shares are trading sharply higher on Wednesday, reversing the slight losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving to near the 9,000 mark, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in financial, energy and mining stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 130.10 points or 1.47 percent to 8,997.50, after touching a high of 8,997.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 119.60 points or 1.31 percent to 9,259.50. Australian stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto Fortescue are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is edging down 0.2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Santos are edging up 0.3 percent each, while Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent. Beach energy is losing more than 2 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 1 percent and Zip is advancing almost 5 percent, while WiseTech Global is down almost 1 percent, Xero is losing more than 1 percent and Appen is declining almost 3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac is advancing almost 3 percent, National Australia bank is gaining more than 2 percent, ANZ Banking is adding more than 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is surging almost 8 percent after reporting record cash earnings for the first-half. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is surging almost 7 percent, Newmont is gaining more than 2 percent and Genesis Minerals is adding almost 2 percent, while Resolute Mining and Northern Star Resources are edging down 0.4 to 0.5 percent each.

In other news, shares in CSL are tumbling more than 6 percent after the biotech giant announced the departure of its chief executive officer and a 7 percent decline in its first-half earnings.

Shares in Aussie Broadband are jumping more than 13 percent amid a deal to acquire AGL Energy's telecommunications business and customer assets, which will see the company issue $115 million in stock to AGL.

Shares in James Hardie Industries are also jumping more than 12 percent after the construction materials supplier reported upbeat results for the third quarter.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.712 on Wednesday.

The Japanese stock market is closed for National Founding Day on Wednesday. Japanese stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 153 yen-range on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan is up 1.1 percent, while China, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia are higher by between 0.1 and 0.8 percent each. New Zealand is bucking the trend and is down 0.2 percent.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction during trading on Tuesday. While the Dow reached a new record intraday high in early trading, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the day mixed. The Dow inched up 52.27 points or 0.1 percent to 50,188.13, but the S&P 500 fell 23.01 points or 0.3 percent to 6,941.81 and the Nasdaq slid 136.20 points or 0.6 percent to 23,102.47.

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices ticked lower on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. jobs data. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was down $0.12 of 0.19 percent to $64.24 per barrel.