Australian Markets Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is modestly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is moving above the 9,100 level, with gains in gold miners and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 18.00 points or 0.20 percent to 9,121.10, after touching a high of 9,131.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 15.80 points or 0.17 percent to 9,332.50. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Rio Tinto is edging up 0.4 percent and BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, while Mineral Resources is losing more than 1 percent and Fortescue is down almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Beach energy is edging down 0.3 percent and Santos is losing almost 1 percent, while Origin Energy is adding almost 1 percent and Woodside Energy is gaining almost 2 percent.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is flat. Zip is losing more than 1 percent, while Xero and Appen are edging down 0.2 to 0.3 percent each. WiseTech Global is up almost 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining, Resolute Mining and Newmont are adding almost 1 percent each, while Northern Star Resources is edging up 0.4 percent. Genesis Minerals is flat.

Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are adding almost 1 percent each.

In other news, shares in ARB Corporation are soaring more than 17 percent as it kept its final dividend steady at 35 cents a share despite net profit and sales revenue falling in the financial year.

In economic news, the Reserve Bank of Australia will on Tuesday release the minutes from its August 11 monetary policy meeting. At the meeting, the RBA kept its benchmark lending rate steady at 4.35 percent following 25 basis point hikes in February, March and May.

The board said it remains focused on ensuring that high inflation does not become embedded, although CPI is not expected to return to around the midpoint of the target range until late 2027

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.716 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Monday but largely maintained a negative bias, after coming under pressure early in the session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a notable decline on the day, ending the session at its lowest closing level in three weeks.

The Nasdaq ended the day off its early lows but still closed down 200.26 points or 0.8 percent at 25,980.19. The S&P 500 also fell 21.51 points or 0.3 percent to 7,652.86. Meanwhile, the narrower Dow bucked the downtrend and rose 140.15 points or 0.3 percent to 53,417.16

The major European markets also turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices slumped on Monday after the U.S. unleashed a massive economic offensive against Iran to compel the nation to strike a deal. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $2.13 or 2.45 percent at $84.93 per barrel.