Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Australian shares are trading modestly higher on Wednesday, extending the gains in the previous three sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving up to near the 9,000 mark, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in iron ore miners, energy and technology stocks. Only gold miners lost their shine.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 27.80 points or 0.31 percent to 8,986.70, after touching a high of 9,005.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 33.80 points or 0.37 percent to 9,216.30. Australian stocks ended modestly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Mineral Resources is advancing almost 4 percent. BHP Group is losing 1.5 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is adding almost 2 percent, while Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Santos is losing more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block and Xero are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Zip is jumping almost 8 percent, Appen is surging more than 9 percent and WiseTech Global is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia bank is surging more than 4 percent and Westpac is gaining more than 1 percent, while Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.5 percent. ANZ Banking is flat. Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is losing more than 3 percent, Genesis Minerals is slipping almost 3 percent, Resolute Mining is down almost 1 percent, Northern Star Resources is declining more than 2 percent and Newmont is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.708 on Wednesday.

On the Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance over the course of the trading session on Tuesday after recovering from an early move to the downside. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing modestly higher.

The Dow inched up 32.26 points or 0.1 percent to 49,533.19, the Nasdaq edged up 31.71 points or 0.1 percent to 22,578.38 and the S&P 500 crept up 7.05 points or 0.1 percent to 6,843.22.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both advanced by 0.8 percent.

Crude oil prices showed another notable move to the downside on Tuesday amid reports indicating that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is leaning towards resuming oil output increases from April. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery slid $0.44 or 0.7 percent to $62.45 a barrel.