(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is rising on Friday, extending gains from the previous session after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to kick-start the economy.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is adding 11.70 points or 0.17 percent to 6,727.00, after touching a high of 6,744.00. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 11.30 points or 0.16 percent to 6,994.00. Australian shares closed higher on Thursday ahead of U.S. stimulus unveiling.
Among the major miners, BHP Group is rising more than 2 percent and Rio Tinto is adding almost 1 percent, while Fortescue Metals is down 0.3 percent.
Oil stocks are higher crude oil prices rebounded overnight. Woodside Petroleum is advancing more than 2 percent, Oil Search is adding 0.6 percent and Santos is up 0.1 percent.
In the banking sector, Westpac is rising almost 2 percent, National Australia Bank is advancing more than 1 percent and ANZ Banking is adding 0.4 percent, while Commonwealth Bank is declining 0.4 percent.
Meanwhile, gold miners are weak after gold prices dipped overnight. Evolution Mining is losing more than 1 percent and Newcrest Mining is lower by almost 1 percent.
Tech stocks are also mostly lower after strong gains in the previous session. WiseTech Global is declining almost 1 percent and Appen is down 0.7 percent, while Afterpay is gaining almost 6 percent.
Objective Corp. forecast a 70 percent surge in its profit for the first half of the year on 40 percent growth in sales. The software vendor's shares are rising more than 5 percent.
On the economic front, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the total value of overall home loans in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 5.6 percent on month in November, coming in at A$23.96 billion.
On Wall Street, stocks saw modest strength for most of the trading session on Thursday amid optimism about additional fiscal stimulus. However, stocks gave back ground going into the close of trading, coinciding with an advance by treasury yields, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested that the economy could return to pre-pandemic levels sooner than expected due to unprecedented fiscal stimulus and the Fed's aggressive intervention.
The Dow slipped 68.95 points or 0.2 percent to 30,991.52, the Nasdaq edged down 16.31 points or 0.1 percent to 13,112.64 and the S&P 500 fell 14.30 points or 0.4 percent to 3,795.54.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on Thursday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Crude oil prices rebounded from early losses to end notably higher on Thursday on hopes big stimulus from the Biden administration and the Covid vaccination drive will help lift energy demand. WTI crude for February ended up by $0.66 or about 1.3 percent at $53.57 a barrel, the highest settlement since mid-February 2020.
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