The Australian stock market is slightly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous four sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 above the 7,500 level at all-time highs, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders digested upbeat domestic earnings results. However, they remain concerned about the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus variants primarily in New South Wales, threatening to weigh on the economy.
NSW has reported 356 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, Victoria has recorded 20 locally acquired cases and Queensland has reported three on Monday.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 13.90 points or 0.18 percent to 7,552.30, after touching an all-time high of 7,576.30 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 16.50 points or 0.21 percent to 7,820.80. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Monday.
Among the major miners, BHP Group is edging up 0.4 percent and Mineral Resources is gaining almost 3 percent, while Fortescue Metals and OZ Minerals are edging down 0.3 percent. Rio Tinto is flat.
Oil stocks are mixed. Santos is edging down 0.5 percent, while Woodside Petroleum is flat. Beach energy is losing 0.4 percent. Oil Search is flat and Origin Energy is up almost 1 percent.
Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is edging up 0.4 percent and ANZ Banking is edging up 0.2 percent.
Among tech stocks, Xero is gaining almost 1 percent, Appen is adding more than 1 percent and Afterpay is up more than 3 percent. WiseTech Global is flat.
Gold miners are mostly lower. Resolute Mining is losing almost 3 percent, Northern Star Resources is down almost 2 percent, Gold Road Resources is lower by more than 1 percent and Newcrest Mining is edging down 0.4 percent. Evolution Mining is flat.
In other news, shares in James Hardie are gaining more than 4 percent after the building supplies maker boosted its guidance on strong growth expectations across North America, Asia Pacific and Europe for the current year ending March 31.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.732 on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks turned in another mixed performance during trading on Monday after ending the previous session on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the Dow and the S&P 500 pulled back off last Friday's record closing highs, the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged slightly higher.
The Nasdaq inched up 24.42 points or 0.2 percent to 14,860.18, but the S&P 500 slipped 4.17 points or 0.1 percent to 4,432.35 and the Dow fell 106.66 points or 0.3 percent to 35,101.85.
The major European also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.
Crude oil prices declined sharply on Monday amid concerns about outlook for energy demand after China imposed travel curbs at many places in the country, aiming to halt the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.80 or 2.6 percent at $66.48 a barrel.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
