The Australian stock market is advancing on Wednesday despite lower commodity prices and the weak cues overnight from Wall Street amid rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Banks and oil stocks are among the leading gainers.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is adding 44.10 points or 0.72 percent to 6,146.20, off a high of 6,153.50. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 42.00 points or 0.68 percent to 6,250.90.
In the banking space, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Banking and Westpac are higher in a range of 1.2 percent to 1.9 percent.
Oil stocks are also higher despite crude oil prices declining overnight. Oil Search is up 0.4 percent, Woodside Petroleum is higher by 0.7 percent and Santos is rising more than 2 percent.
Telecom giant Telstra said it will cut 8,000 jobs over the next three years as it tries to save A$1 billion and outlined plans to split its mobile as well as infrastructure operations into separate businesses. Shares of Telstra are falling more than 6 percent.
Among the major miners, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals are declining 0.2 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is down 0.4 percent after iron ore and copper prices fell overnight.
Gold miner Evolution Mining is down 0.4 percent and Newcrest Mining is declining 0.5 percent after gold prices edged lower.
Real estate agent McGrath will sell a 15 percent stake to property developer Aqualand Group, which is entitled to a director on the McGrath board and will also give McGrath first right to discuss being agent to its Aqualand's new projects. Shares of McGrath are rising more than 16 percent.
On the economic front, Australia will see May data for skilled vacancies and also for the leading index from Westpac.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar is edging higher against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday. The local unit was trading at US$0.7384, up from US$0.7365 on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Tuesday, but well off worst levels. Trade war concerns weighed on Wall Street after President Donald Trump directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to identify $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs at a rate of 10 percent.
The Dow tumbled 287.26 points or 1.2 percent to 24,700.21, while the Nasdaq fell 21.44 points or 0.3 percent to 7,725.58 and the S&P 500 slid 11.18 points or 0.4 percent to 2,762.57.
The major European markets also moved to the downside on Tuesday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index slumped by 1.1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
Crude oil futures tumbled Tuesday as OPEC geared up for a contentious meeting in Vienna. July WTI oil settled at $65.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $0.78 or 1.2 percent.
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