The Australian stock market experienced marked increases on Monday, building upon the rise observed in the last two sessions. The S&P/ASX 200 Index made significant gains, predominantly fueled by the performance of the global markets on the previous Friday. This upward trend was seen predominantly in the technology and finance sectors, although the stride was somewhat diminished by the underperformance of gold miners.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 40.50 points or increased by 0.53 percent to 7,669.50, after peaking at 7,672.00. Concurrently, the All Ordinaries Index rose by 41.30 points or 0.52 percent to 7,938.80. This follows an already robust closing of the Australian stocks on the preceding Friday.
Significant gains were seen in major mining companies such as Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals with more than a percent increase each. The upward surge continued with BHP Group and Mineral Resources, who saw increases of 0.5 percent and nearly 2 percent respectively.
In the oil sector, most stocks saw an upturn. Woodside Energy and Beach Energy each made a nearly 1 percent increase, while Origin Energy saw a slight increase of 0.1 percent. Santos, however, remained steady.
Tech stocks followed the uptrend, with WiseTech Global and Zip seeing nearly a 2 percent increase each. Appen and Xero also saw gains of approximately 1 percent and over 1 percent respectively. Nevertheless, Afterpay owner Block experienced a plunge of more than 9 percent.
Gold miner stocks did not perform as strongly, with Gold Road Resources, Newmont, Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining recording losses, while Resolute Mining saw a gain of over 1 percent.
In the realm of the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Banking each recorded a roughly 1 percent increase, while National Australia Bank and Westpac each saw gains of over 1 percent.
As for the currency market, the Australian dollar traded at $0.662 on Monday.
Wall Street also displayed strong inclinations towards improvement on Friday, coinciding with an upward trajectory observed since Thursday. The Nasdaq led the overall significant increase of the major averages.
European heralded the same positive trend, with the DAX Index in Germany, the FTSE 100 Index in the U.K., and the CAC 40 Index in France, each advancing by 0.5-0.6 percent.
However, crude oil prices experienced a fall on Friday, culminating in the highest weekly reduction in about three months. This was due to concerns about future global oil demand, causing the West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June to drop by $0.84 or 1.06 percent to $78.11 per barrel.
