Australian Market Advances On Wall Street Lead

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading notably higher on Tuesday with investors indulging in some strong buying in several stocks from across various sectors, on the back of a positive lead from Wall Street.

Energy, healthcare, consumer discretionary and industrial stocks are among the prominent gainers. Financial and mining stocks are trading mixed.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is up 30.7 points or 0.6 percent at 5,322.6. The broader All Ordinaries index is trading at 5,320.6, up 29.1 points or 0.5 percent from its previous close.

Among bank stocks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac (WBK) are up 0.7 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. ANZ Bank and National Australia Bank are trading marginally up. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank is adding 1.3 percent, while Bank of Queensland is up 0.4 percent.

Among top miners, BHP Billiton (BHP) and Newcrest Mining are up 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, while Rio Tinto (RIO) and Fortescue Metals are trading slightly weak.

In the energy sector, Origin Energy is up 1.8 percent, Caltex Australia is trading 2.3 percent up, Santos is up nearly a percent and Woodside Petroleum is advancing 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, Oil Search is trading weak, losing about 0.4 percent.

Downer EDI is up nearly 3.5 percent. UGL, Henderson Group, Seek, Beach Energy, Echo Entertainment Group and ALS are trading higher by 2 to 3 percent. Treasury Wine Estates, Crown Resorts, Arrium, Toll Holdings, Myer Holdings and Adelaide Brighton are up 1.7 to 2 percent.

Meanwhile, Orora Limited, Investa Office Fund and GPT Group shares are trading weak, losing 1.7 to 2.3 percent.

Transurban Group shares are up 0.7 percent. The company is close to completing the purchase of A$475 million of debt held by Sydney's Cross City Tunnel. The 2.1 kilometre tunnel, which connects the west side of Sydney's CBD to Rushcutters Bay in the east, was placed in receivership in September in the wake of a legal dispute with the NSW government over stamp duty.

In the currency market, the Australian dollar opened slightly weak against the U.S. dollar. In early trades, the local unit was quoting at US$0.8937, down marginally from Monday's close of US$0.8942.

On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher on Monday, amid continued optimism about the outlook for the U.S. economy following upbeat remarks by the head of the International Monetary Fund. The gains lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to new record highs, while the Nasdaq reached its best levels since 2000.

While the Nasdaq jumped 44.2 points or 1.1 percent to 4,148.9, the Dow rose 73.5 points or 0.5 percent to 16,294.6 and the S&P 500 climbed 9.7 points or 0.5 percent to 1,828.

Major European markets too ended on a firm note Monday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index jumped by 1.1 percent, the German DAX index climbed 0.9 percent and the French CAC 40 index surged up 0.5 percent.

U.S. crude ended lower on Monday, mostly on profit taking notwithstanding some upbeat U.S. gross domestic product data and an increase in the consumer sentiment index.

Crude for February delivery ended down $0.41 or 0.4 percent at $98.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after touching a high of $99.31 a barrel intraday.