Australian Markets Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is slightly higher on Tuesday, extending the slight gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving up to near the 8,700 level, with gains in technology stocks partially offset by weakness in gold miners, energy and financial stocks.

Traders remain cautious ahead of the interest rate decision later in the day, with the Reserve Bank of Australia expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, to 4.60 percent.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 13.00 points or 0.15 percent to 8,692.70, after touching a high of 8,697.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 13.60 points or 0.15 percent to 8,864.30. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue is edging up 0.1 percent and BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are edging down 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy is declining more than 1 percent and Origin Energy is down almost 1 percent, while Santos and Beach energy are losing almost 2 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is declining more than 3 percent. WiseTech Global and Xero are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Appen is advancing almost 4 percent and Zip is adding almost 3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is down almost 1 percent, Newmont is losing more than 1 percent and Northern Star Resources is declining more than 2 percent, while Genesis Minerals and Resolute Mining are edging down 0.4 percent each.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 1 percent, while National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each.

In other news, shares in Megaport Ltd. are jumping more than 14 percent after the tech company announced almost $1 billion in three AI infrastructure contracts through its Latitude.sh business.

Shares in Codan Ltd. are also soaring more than 16 percent after the drone components maker announced upbeat profit outlook for the December half on strong demand from drone manufacturers amid global warfare.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.701 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated but remained mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Monday after coming under pressure early in the session. The major averages all moved to the downside on the day following the strength seen during last Friday's session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 248.34 points or 0.9 percent to 26,820.38, the S&P 500 slid 59.72 points or 0.8 percent to 7,683.69 and the Dow fell 347.11 points or 0.7 percent to 51,481.51.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day little changed. While the French CAC 40 Index closed just above the unchanged line, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices were up on Monday, although well off early highs after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected Iran's conditional proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.41 or 0.42 percent to $92.80 per barrel.