Australian Market Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading modestly higher on Tuesday, reversing some of the losses in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving to near the 8,650 level, with gains in mining and financial stocks partially offset by weakness in energy and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 13.80 points or 0.16 percent to 8,648.80, after touching a high of 8,672.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 8.80 points or 0.10 percent to 8,932.60. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is adding almost 1 percent, Rio Tinto is gaining more than 1 percent and Fortescue is edging up 0.3 percent, while Mineral Resources is losing almost 1 percent. Oil stocks are mostly lower. Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Santos are losing more than 1 percent each, while Beach energy is declining almost 2 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block, WiseTech Global and Zip are losing more than 1 percent each, while Xero is declining more than 2 percent. Appen is gaining more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Newmont are gaining almost 1 percent each, while and Resolute Mining is surging almost 8 percent. Northern Star resources is edging down 0.4 percent. Genesis Minerals is flat.

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

In other news, shares in DroneShield are jumping more than 18 percent after it secured a $49.6 million contract through a European reseller supplying a military end-customer.

In economic news, Australia's composite index continued to expand in December, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Tuesday with a composite PMI score of 51.1. That's down from 52.6 in November, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The survey also showed that the manufacturing index improved to 52.2 from 51.6 in November, while the services PMI fell to 51.0 from 52.8.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.663 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved to the upside at the start of trading on Monday but quickly gave back ground early in the session. The major averages pulled back well off their early highs and spent much of the rest of the day lingering near the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the day modestly lower. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 137.76 points or 0.6 percent to 23,057.41, the S&P 500 dipped 10.90 points or 0.2 percent to 6,816.51 and the Dow edged down 41.49 points or 0.1 percent at 48,416.56.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.6 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices retreated on Monday as lingering oversupply concerns offset worries about potential supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.62 or 1.1 percent to $56.82 per barrel.