Australian Market Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading slightly higher on Tuesday, reversing some of the losses in the previous two sessions, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying above the 9,000 mark, with gains is mining and energy stocks partially offset by weakness in financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 13.00 points or 0.14 percent to 9,039.00, after touching a high of 9,054.70 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 11.80 points or 0.13 percent to 9,263.30. Australian stocks closed notably lower on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Mineral Resources is surging almost 5 percent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue are adding almost 1 percent each. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is gaining more than 1 percent, while Santos, Origin Energy and Beach energy are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is declining more than 3 percent, Zip is declining almost 4 percent, Xero is down more than 2 percent, WiseTech Global is slipping almost 3 percent and Appen is advancing almost 4 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Northern Star resources are advancing more than 3 percent each, while Genesis Minerals is gaining 1.5 percent and Newmont is edging up 0.1 percent. Resolute Mining is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank are edging down 0.2 percent each, while ANZ Banking is losing more than 1 percent. Westpac is flat.

In other news, shares in Monadelphous Group are jumping more than 13 percent after the mining and engineering services provider posted upbeat results for the first-half of the year. It also declared a higher interim dividend of 49 cents per share. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.706 on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Monday after turning in a strong performance last week. The major averages all showed significant moves to the downside, with the Dow tumbling to its lowest closing level in a month.

The major averages ended the day off their lows of the session but still firmly negative. The Dow slumped 821.91 points or 1.7 percent to 48,804.06, the Nasdaq slid 258.80 points or 1.1 percent to 22,627.27 and the S&P 500 declined 71.76 points or 1.0 percent to 6,837.75.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the German DX Index slumped 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just below the unchanged line.

Crude oil prices sputtered on Monday as demand concerns reappeared following the uncertainty generated by the tariff issues. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery slipped $0.10 or 0.15 percent to $66.38 per barrel.