Australian Market Modestly Higher

The Australian stock market is modestly higher on Thursday, after sharp losses in the previous sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 still just below the 7,000 mark, as weakness in miners, energy and travel stocks are offset by strength in financial and technology stocks. Traders shrugged off the negative cues overnight from Wall Street.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 52.30 points or 0.76 percent to 6,984.00, after touching a high of 6,984.30 and a low of 6,919.40 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 49.80 points or 0.70 percent to 7,215.50. Australian markets ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, Fortescue Metals and Rio Tinto are losing almost 2 percent each, while OZ Minerals is down more than 3 percent and Mineral Resources is declining more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are lower after crude oil prices tumbled overnight. Oil Search, Beach Energy and Santos are losing more than 2 percent each, while Woodside Petroleum is down more than 1 percent and Origin Energy is flat.

Among Tech stocks, Appen is gaining almost 2 percent, Afterpay is surging more than 5 percent, WiseTech Global is adding more than 1 percent and Xero up more than 4 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and National Australia Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is adding more than 1 percent and Commonwealth Bank is up more than 2 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining is losing almost 2 percent, Newcrest Mining is down almost 1 percent, Northern Star Resources is lower by more than 1 percent and Resolute Mining is down 0.5 percent. Gold Road Resources is gaining more than 1 percent.

In other news, travel stocks were lower after Qantas said it would slash the front-end commissions it pays for selling tickets on its international flight to 1 percent from 5 percent. Webjet is losing more than 5 percent and Corporate Travel Management is down more than 3 percent, while Flight Centre and Helloworld are declining almost 6 percent each.

Meanwhile, shares in Qantas are up more than 3 percent after a trading update said it was “slowly starting to turn the corner” after the pandemic and was on track to return to 95 percent of pre-COVID domestic capacity in the June quarter. However, it pushed back the resumption date of most international flying to late December from late October. It is set to report a loss of more than $2 billion for the full year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but says it has started to pay down its debt pile.

Agricultural chemical company Nufarm swing to a $58.9 million first half profit on strong growth across its seed technology business. However, the company expects its full-year result to be weighted heavily towards the first six months of the year. The stock is up more than 3 percent.

Shares in Nuix are plunging more than 9 percent after the technology giant Days dropped half of its defence against a multi-million-dollar damages claim by its former CEO Eddie Sheehy. It also announced an earnings downgrade last month.

In economic news, the unemployment rate in Australia fell a seasonally adjusted 5.5 percent in April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That was beneath expectation for a 5.6 percent drop and down from the upwardly revised 5.7 percent in March (originally 5.6 percent). The Australian economy lost 30,600 jobs last month, well shy of expectations for a gain of 15,000 jobs following the addition of 70,700 jobs in March. The participation rate fell to 66.0 percent, missing forecasts for 66.3 – which would have been unchanged from the previous month.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.773 on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday, as worries about inflation and the bitcoin’s sharp plunge weighed on the market, despite staging a fairly strong recovery from an early setback. But the market recovered after the bitcoin rebounded from the session’s lows.

The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the day just off their lows of the session. The Dow, which plunged more than 580 points to 33,473.80, recovered to close at 33,896.04 with a loss of 164.62 points or 0.48 percent. The S&P 500 finished with a loss of 12.15 points or 0.29 percent at 4,115.68, off the session’s low of 4,061.41, while the Nasdaq settled with a small loss of 3.90 points or 0.03 percent at 13,299.74, way off the day’s low of 13,072.23.

The major European markets also all moved to the downside on the day. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 shed 1.19 percent, Germany’s DAX declined 1.77 percent and France’s CAC 40 ended 1.43 percent lower.

Crude oil prices declined sharply on Wednesday, weighed down by an increase in U.S. crude stockpiles, and on worries about outlook for energy demand from Asian countries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down $2.13 or 3.3 percent at $63.36 a barrel.

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