Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly higher on Monday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving up to near the 8,800.00 level, with gains in gold miners and technology stocks and a mixed performance in most other sectors.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 15.30 points or 0.17 percent to 8,785.00, after touching a high of 8,806.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 25.20 points or 0.28 percent to 9,056.90. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging down 0.3 percent and Fortescue is losing almost 1 percent, while Mineral Resources is gaining almost 4 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.

Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy is edging up 0.2 percent and Woodside Energy is gaining almost 1 percent, while Santos is edging down 0.3 percent and Origin Energy is down more than 1 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is surging more than 6 percent, Zip is advancing almost 5 percent, Appen is gaining more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is adding almost 2 percent, while Xero is losing almost 2 percent.

Gold miners are higher. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are adding more than 1 percent each, while Resolute Mining and Newmont are gaining almost 1 percent each. Genesis Minerals is edging up 0.3 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.1 to 0.4 percent each, while Westpac is gaining almost 1 percent and ANZ Banking is adding more than 1 percent.

In other news, shares in Monadelphous Group are climbing almost 9 percent after the engineering contractor told investors it expects half-year revenue of about $1.5 billion, driven by strong demand across construction, energy, and infrastructure projects.

Shares in DroneShield are also jumping almost 9 percent after it secured $7.6 million in new contracts to supply handheld counter-drone systems to the US government, with delivery and payment expected between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.651 on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks showed a significant rebound over the course of the trading day on Friday after initially extending the sharp pullback seen during Thursday's session. The major averages climbed well off their lows of the session, with the Dow and the S&P 500 reaching positive territory.

The major averages ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Nasdaq dipped 49.46 points or 0.2 percent to 23,004.54 after plunging by as much as 2.1 percent, the S&P 500 inched up 8.48 points or 0.1 percent to 6,278.80 and the Dow rose 74.80 points or 0.2 percent to 46,987.10.

Meanwhile, the major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index fell by 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices saw modest gains on Friday as a weakening dollar was offset by reports of oversupply and low demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.38 or 0.64 percent at $59.81 per barrel.