The Australian sharemarket opened slightly higher on Thursday morning after a steady night on Wall Street, while oil prices continued to climb amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The S&P/ASX 200 increased 7.3 points, or 0.1 per cent to 8,205.5 at 10:37am AEST, with real estate stocks keeping the index afloat, despite tech and energy stocks weighing heavily.

The best performer this morning was Car Sales group that rose 2.8 per cent, followed by gambling company Light and Wonder (up 2.5 per cent) and property group Mirvac (up 2 per cent).

Energy company New Hope Corporation was the worst performer down 5.5 per cent, followed by materials companies Pilbara Minerals (down 5.4 per cent) and Liontown Resources (down 4.3 per cent).

Westpac shed 1 per cent after selling its auto finance loans to ASX-listed Resimac, a non-bank lender, for about $1.5 billion by mid next year. In a statement to the market on Thursday morning, Westpac said the sale would complete the bank’s divestment from auto-finance.

Overnight, the S&P 500 finished virtually unchanged, a day after sliding from its record on worries about a possible widening of the fighting in the Middle East. The Dow Jones edged up by 39 points, or 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1 per cent.

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Oil prices rose again as the world waits to see how Israel will respond to Tuesday’s missile attack from Iran, but they pared their gains as the day progressed. After briefly topping $US76 earlier, the price for a barrel of Brent crude settled at $US73.90, up 0.5 per cent.

While Israel is not a major producer of oil, Iran is, and a worry is that a broadening war could affect neighbouring countries that are also integral to the flow of crude. Helping to keep oil prices in check, meanwhile, are signals that supplies remain ample at the moment. The amount of crude in US inventories increased last week, according to a US government report.