The Australian stock market is significantly higher on Monday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 hovering above the 7,100 level at record highs, as the continued surge in commodity prices helped lift materials, mining and energy stocks. The cues were also broadly positive from Wall Street on Friday
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 83.00 points or 1.17 percent to 7,163.80, after touching a high of 7,165.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 85.90 points or 1.17 percent to 7,411.10. Australian stocks closed marginally higher on Friday.
Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are gaining almost 3 percent each, while Mineral Resources is adding almost 4 percent and Fortescue Metals is up more than 5 percent.
Oil stocks are higher, with oil Search and Santos gaining almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Petroleum is edging up 0.2 percent.
The big four banks are higher. National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Westpac and Commonwealth Bank are adding almost 1 percent each.
Among tech stocks, Afterpay is gaining almost 2 percent, while WiseTech Global is losing more than 1 percent and Appen is down more than 2 percent.
Gold miners are higher after gold prices climbed on Friday. Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Evolution Mining is adding more than 3 percent.
Shares in A2 Milk are plummeting more than 21 percent to 4-year lows after its English-label infant formula sales for the third quarter through its Chinese channels fell 57 percent from last year, with earnings also projects to drop 11 to 12 percent, more than previous forecasts.
Casino giants Crown Resorts and Star and rival Star Entertainment after confirming a $12 billion merger proposal between the two. Crown shares are up almost 7 percent and Star Entertainment is soaring more than 8 percent.
Shares in DXN are surging almost 8 percent after the data centre operator struck two new significant deals, with an agreement to build a cable landing station on the Cocos Keeling Islands for the Oman Australia Cable (OAC) in a deal worth $650,000, and a contract worth $350,000 to supply a prefabricated data centre in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.785 on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Friday, extending the upward move seen in the previous session. With the continued advance, the Dow and the S&P 500 both ended the session at new record closing highs.
The major averages all ended the day firmly in positive territory. The Dow rose 229.23 points or 0.7 percent to 34,777.76, the Nasdaq advanced 119.40 points or 0.9 percent to 13,752.24 and the S&P 500 climbed 30.98 points or 0.7 percent to 4,232.60.
The major European all also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index surged up by 1.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.8 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.5 percent.
Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday on optimism for increased demand in Europe and the U.S. although gains were capped by coronavirus concerns in Asia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended up $0.19 or 0.3 percent at $64.90 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 2.1 percent in the week.
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