The local market bucked the overnight sell-off around global markets to close Thursday’s session just 0.03% higher, following the decision by OPEC+ to cut daily oil production in attempt to stabilise prices, which sent local energy shares soaring.

Real Estate stocks took another hit today as interest rates continue to rise, with the latest 0.25% hike announced earlier this week, as the rising rate environment is likely to lead to short-term underperformance in earnings for REIT stocks.

Taking a look at the winning stocks for today’s session, Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) continued its surge, adding 7.17% today, while Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and Link Administration (ASX:LNK) each added 5.7% and 5.14% respectively.

And on the losing end of the market today, Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG) tanked 8% today after the company provided an update for its funds under management for September, showing its FUM continued to decline last month, with retail pulling another $0.4bn and institutions pulling another $3.2bn of funds managed by the embattled fund manager. Kelsian Group (ASX:KLS) and Domain Holdings (ASX:DHG) each also lost more than 3% today.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients today were Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), Brainchip (ASX:BRN) and Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN).

Taking a look at economic data, Australia’s trade balance data for August was released today showing the country’s trade surplus declined again in the month of August to hit $8.324bn, which was well below the market expectations of an increase in trade surplus to $10.1bn, in a sign Australia continues to increase imports compared to exports this new financial year. And the Aussie Dollar is trading slightly stronger against the greenback, up 0.39% with 1 Aussie dollar today buying 65.33 US cents.