Australian Market Sharply Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading sharply higher on Wednesday, snapping a four-session losing streak, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 7,100 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across most sectors, led by gold miners and technology stocks. Traders are also picking up stocks at a bargain following the recent losing streak.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 110.10 points or 1.57 percent to 7,134.40, after touching a high of 7,137.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 111.20 points or 1.55 percent to 7,310.80. Australian stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Groupis gaining almost 2 percent and Fortescue Metals is advancing more than 2 percent, while Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are adding more than 1 percent each. OZ Minerals is edging down 0.2 percent.

Oil stocks are higher. Santos is gaining 1.5 percent, while Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Beach energy are adding more than 2 percent each.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is surging more than 4 percent, Xero is edging up 0.5 percent, Appen is gaining almost 2 percent, WiseTech Global is adding more than 1 percent and Zip is advancing 2.5 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each.

Among gold miners, Newcrest Mining is surging more than 5 percent, Gold Road Resources is gaining 4.5 percent and Evolution Mining is soaring almost 7 percent, while Resolute Mining and Northern Star Resources are adding almost 4 percent each.

Other news, shares in TPG Telecom are down almost 4 percent after Australia's competition watchdog has moved to block Telstra and TPG Telecom's $1.8 billion network sharing deal. Telstra is edging up 0.4 percent. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.668 on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved modestly higher over the course of the trading session on Tuesday after recovering from an early move to the downside. The major averages climbed well off their early lows and into positive territory.

The major averages all finished the day in the green, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq was little changed, inching up 1.08 points or 0.1 percent to 10,547.11. The Dow rose 92.20 points or 0.3 percent to 32,849.74 and the S&P 500 crept up 3.96 points or 0.1 percent to 3,821.62.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil bounced higher on Tuesday thanks to an improving demand outlook and a slightly weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate rose $0.83 or 1.10 percent to $76.02 per barrel.