The Australian stock market is significantly higher on Monday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 7,200 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, with gains across all sectors, particularly a rebound in technology stocks amid bargain hunting.
However, concerns about persistent inflation, looming interest rate hikes, Ukraine war and the COVID-19 lockdowns in China remain.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 67.30 points or 0.95 percent to 7,142.40, after touching a high of 7,149.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 78.20 points or 1.07 percent to 7,385.90. Australian stocks closed sharply higher on Friday.
Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging down 0.4 percent and OZ Minerals is declining almost 1 percent, while Mineral Resources is gaining almost 3 percent. Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals are edging up 0.4 percent each.
Oil stocks are higher, Woodside Petroleum is gaining more than 1 percent, Origin Energy is edging up 0.2 percent, Beach energy is adding 1.5 percent and Santos is gaining almost 1 percent.
Among tech stocks, Xero is gaining almost 5 percent, WiseTech Global is adding almost 3 percent, Appen is surging more than 5 percent, Afterpay owner Block is soaring almost 6 percent and Zip is up more than 1 percent.
Gold miners are higher. Gold Road Resources is gaining almost 1 percent and Newcrest Mining is edging up 0.5 percent, while Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are adding more than 1 percent each. Resolute Mining is flat.
Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging up 0.2 percent and Westpac is adding more than 2 percent.
In other news, shares in Brambles are soaring more than 11 percent after news that the pallet maker is considering an unsolicited takeover offer of about $20 billion from European private equity giant CVC Capital Partners.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.694 on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Friday after ending the previous session little changed. With the strong upward move on the day, the major averages partly offset the sell-off seen over the past several sessions.
The major averages threatened an afternoon pullback but managed to hold on to strong gains. The Dow jumped 466.36 points or 1.5 percent to 32,196.66, the Nasdaq spiked 434.04 points or 3.8 percent to 11,805.00 and the S&P 500 surged 93.81 points or 2.4 percent to 4,023.89.
The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 2.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index soared by 2.5 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday, lifting the most active crude futures contracts on fears of supply shortage. West Texas International Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $4.36 or 4.1 percent at $110.49 a barrel.
Market Analysis
Australian Market Significantly Higher
2022-05-16 01:30:30
