The Australian stock market notably advanced on Tuesday, recouping the previous session’s losses despite broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The S&P/ASX 200 Index surpassed the 8,400 mark, buoyed by gains in mining and technology sectors following U.S. President Donald Trump's postponement of tariff impositions on major American trade partners.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose by 41.50 points, or 0.50 percent, to 8,420.90, having hit a high of 8,446.80 earlier. Meanwhile, the broader All Ordinaries Index increased by 48.30 points or 0.56 percent to 8,676.70. On Monday, Australian stocks had closed significantly lower.
In the mining sector, BHP Group saw a nearly 1 percent gain, while Mineral Resources advanced 2.5 percent. Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals each added close to 2 percent.
Oil stock performances varied; Origin Energy fell almost 1 percent, and Santos slipped by 0.3 percent, whereas Woodside Energy saw a slight uptick of 0.1 percent, and Beach Energy rose nearly 1 percent.
Technology stocks showed strong performance, with Block, owner of Afterpay, climbing more than 2 percent. Xero increased by almost 1 percent, Zip advanced over 3 percent, WiseTech Global rose over 1 percent, and Appen surged beyond 5 percent after positive fourth-quarter results.
Gold mining stocks were mostly up. Evolution Mining and Newmont both improved nearly 1 percent, and Resolute Mining along with Northern Star Resources inched up by 0.5 percent. Gold Road Resources gained close to 3 percent.
Among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac each added nearly 1 percent, while ANZ Banking and National Australia Bank edged up by 0.5 percent.
In other developments, shares of Predictive Discovery soared over 9 percent after announcing a plan to sell a 10 percent stake to raise $69.2 million through two mining investors. Nufarm shares rose in excess of 6 percent following the chemicals company’s update on its ongoing cost-saving program.
In currency trading, the Australian dollar stood at $0.621.
On Wall Street, stocks started Monday sharply lower, but partially rebounded. The major indices bounced back from their lows, with the Dow briefly entering positive territory, though all ended the day down. The Nasdaq, weighted heavily in tech, dropped by 235.49 points or 1.2 percent to close at 19,391.96. The S&P 500 slid by 45.96 points or 0.8 percent to 5,994.57, while the Dow Jones declined by 122.75 points or 0.3 percent to 44,421.91.
European markets also exhibited significant declines. Germany's DAX Index fell by 1.4 percent, France's CAC 40 Index decreased by 1.2 percent, and the UK's FTSE 100 Index contracted by 1.0 percent.
Oil prices rose on Monday after Trump's tariffs on Canadian imports posed a threat to the cohesive oil market in North America. West Texas Intermediate Crude for March concluded at $73.16 per barrel, marking an increase of $0.63 or about 0.87 percent.
