Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading modestly higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 9,150 level, with strong gains in gold miners and technology as well as a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 15.30 points or 0.17 percent to 9,190.60, after hitting a low of 9,158.40 and a high of 9,190.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 17.60 points or 0.19 percent to 9,426.30. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

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

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Origin Energy and Woodside Energy are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent. Santos is losing almost 1 percent. Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global is gaining almost 2 percent and Zip is soaring almost 8 percent, while Appen and Xero are adding more than 1 percent each. Afterpay-owner Block is skyrocketing almost 28 percent after it decided to cut 4000 of its 10,000 employees.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank are edging up 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 2 percent and Westpac is edging down 0.2 percent.

Gold miners are higher. Evolution Mining is advancing more than 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 3 percent and Genesis Minerals is rising more than 4 percent, while Resolute Mining and Newmont are adding almost 2 percent each.

In other news, shares in Coles Group are tumbling more than 8 percent after the supermarket giant posted downbeat half-yearly results, despite higher sales and profit.

Shares in Bapcor are plummeting more than 48 percent after the auto parts company reported downbeat results for the first half and announced a highly discounted A$200 equity raising.

In economic news, overall private sector credit in Australia was up 0.5 percent on month on January, the Reserve Bank of Australia said on Friday - easing from 0.8 percent in December. On a yearly basis, overall credit jumped 7.7 percent. Broad money was up 0.6 percent on month and 7.4 percent on year.

Individually, housing credit added 0.6 percent on month and 7.0 percent on year, while personal credit gained 0.2 percent on month and 4.1 percent on year and business credit rose 0.5 percent on month and 9.4 percent on year.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.710 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back some ground during trading on Thursday after moving sharply higher over the two previous sessions. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a significant move to the downside, although the Dow managed to end the day slightly higher.

The Nasdaq climbed well off its early lows but still slumped 273.69 points or 1.2 percent to 22,878.38. The S&P 500 also fell 37.27 points or 0.5 percent to 6,908.86, but the narrower Dow inched up 17.05 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 49,499.20.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.7 percent, the German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index increased by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices saw early strength Thursday on Mideast tensions but couldn't hold the gains after progress was reported in talks between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was down by $0.11 or 0.2 percent at $65.31 barrel.