The Australian stock market has shown a significant uptick on Friday, continuing its upward momentum from the previous two sessions, despite mixed signals from Wall Street overnight. The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark has comfortably surpassed the 8,200 mark, with robust performances primarily from the mining and energy sectors.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index has risen by 38.30 points, or 0.47%, reaching 8,259.20, after hitting a peak of 8,281.40 earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the broader All Ordinaries Index has increased by 44.10 points, or 0.52%, to stand at 8,515.60. This follows a moderate rise in Australian stocks on Tuesday, prior to the holiday hiatus on Wednesday and Thursday.
In the mining sector, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals have each climbed by nearly 1%, Rio Tinto has added over 1%, and Mineral Resources has progressed by nearly 2%.
The oil sector is experiencing a general upswing, with Woodside Energy gaining nearly 1%, Santos advancing by 0.5%, and Beach Energy increasing by over 1%, although Origin Energy is slightly down, decreasing by 0.4%.
In the technology sector, Zip is up by more than 2%, Block, the owner of Afterpay, has added close to 2%, and Appen has surged by more than 11%. However, WiseTech Global has fallen by nearly 1%, and Xero is marginally down by 0.4%.
Among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking have increased by 0.4% each, while Westpac and National Australia Bank have both gained close to 1%. Most gold miners are also on the rise; Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources have each advanced by nearly 1%, Resolute Mining has jumped by 2.5%, and Gold Road Resources is up by almost 1%. Conversely, Newmont is down slightly, by 0.4%.
The Australian dollar is trading at $0.622 as of Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks recovered some ground throughout Thursday's trading after an initial slump. The major indices rebounded significantly from their early lows, frequently hovering near break-even for much of the session.
Eventually, the major indices ended the day with narrow fluctuations. The Dow inched up by 28.77 points, or 0.1%, to 43,325.80, while the Nasdaq decreased by 10.77 points, or 0.1%, to 20,020.37, and the S&P 500 slipped by 2.45 points, less than 0.1%, to 6,037.59.
In contrast, the major European markets observed the Boxing Day holiday and remained closed on the day.
Crude oil prices failed to maintain early gains and declined on Thursday, weighed down by uncertainty over global oil demand and potential market oversupply. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures settled $0.48 lower, nearly a 0.7% decrease, at $69.62 per barrel.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company -
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