FX.co ★ Australian Market Notably Higher

The Australian market saw a notable increase on Thursday, recovering losses from the previous session, buoyed by broadly positive signals from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index surpassed the 8,000 mark, with gains evident across most sectors, particularly in mining and technology stocks.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 51.00 points, or 0.64%, to 8,038.90, after reaching a peak of 8,040.50 earlier. Meanwhile, the broader All Ordinaries Index rose by 57.60 points, or 0.70%, to 8,252.80. On Wednesday, Australian stocks closed slightly lower.

In major mining, Rio Tinto increased by over 1%, Mineral Resources surged by more than 5%, Fortescue Metals added almost 1%, while BHP Group fell by nearly 2%.

Oil stocks saw mixed results. Beach Energy gained almost 1%, Woodside Energy edged up 0.4%, and Origin Energy added more than 1%, whereas Santos remained flat.

The technology sector performed strongly, with Afterpay owner Block gaining more than 4%, Xero adding more than 1%, Appen surging nearly 6%, WiseTech Global up by 2.5%, and Zip advancing over 3%.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank each gained almost 1%, while Westpac added more than 1%, and ANZ Banking edged up 0.5%.

Gold miners experienced slight gains with Evolution Mining and Gold Road Resources each edging up between 0.1% and 0.5%, Resolute Mining advancing more than 3%, and Northern Star Resources gaining over 1%. Newmont, however, fell by more than 1%.

In the currency market, the Australian dollar was trading at $0.668 on Thursday.

Wall Street experienced a substantial turnaround on Wednesday after a sharp decline early in the session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the recovery, with all major averages finishing the day in positive territory.

After an early decline of up to 1.4%, the Nasdaq surged by 369.65 points, or 2.2%, to 17,395.53. The S&P 500 also jumped by 58.61 points, or 1.1%, to 5,554.13, while the Dow rose by 124.75 points, or 0.3%, to 40,861.71, after hitting its lowest intraday level in almost a month.

European markets had a mixed performance. The German DAX Index rose by 0.4%, while the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1%, and the UK's FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2%.

Crude oil prices surged on Wednesday, recovering from a three-year low in the previous session due to fears of prolonged production shutdowns in the offshore oil patch because of Hurricane Francine. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October rose by $1.56, or 2.37%, to $67.31 per barrel.