Australian shares buoyed by rally in small miners
The Australian sharemarket opened higher and kept moving higher, led by large moves in smaller resource stocks as well as bank stocks. The poor lead from Wall Street was ignored and traders seem to wade into the market today with a philosophy that they might be missing out on any new upswing by not buying today.
Regional Asian markets continued their strong upward move for the seventh day. The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan rose for a seventh straight day, up 1.1% to a two-month high and shrugging off weakness on Wall Street where investors took profits on last week's run-up.
Japan's Nikkei average climbed 1.1%.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 55.7 points, or 1.5%, to 3742.7, to a two month high.
Bank stocks sold off
Bank stocks were stronger as ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) gained 33 cents, or 2.2%, to $15.40, Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) was up 87 cents, or 3%, to $29.47, NAB (ASX:NAB) rose 51 cents, or 2.5%, to $20.74 and Westpac (ASX:WBC) jumped 39 cents, or 2.3%, to $17.03.
Miners continue to regain ground – smaller is better
A rebound in the oil price seemed to keep metal prices higher and continued the recovery of resource stocks since December 2008. BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP)was up 7 cents, or 0.2%, to $31.70, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) gained $1.12, or 2.6%, to $43.42 and Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) added 4 cents, or 1.9%, to $2.14.
Gold stocks were mixed, as Lihir Gold (ASX:LGL) gave up 26 cents, or 9%, to $2.64 and Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) gained 38 cents, or 1.2%, to $31.60 from yesterday’s large fall.
Oil stocks were higher, Santos (ASX:STO) was up 39 cents, or 2.6%, to $15.14 and Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) was up 84 cents, or 2.2%, to $38.61.
The Australian dollar gained was steady at 71.20 US cents.
Register here to be notified of Proactiveinvestors One2One Forums.
Other Australia Market Wrap articles
-
12/03/10 Lithium and rare earths markets poised for growth
-
11/03/10 Tantalum market outlook
-
11/03/10 Silver price bounces back
-
10/03/10 As Confidence Returns, Gold Will Rise - Sprott's John Embry
-
10/03/10 Molybdenum prices to rise on market uncertainty
-
09/03/10 Gold prices moving again
-
09/03/10 Coking coal: back on proverbial fire
-
05/03/10 NuPower Resources, TNG, Bandanna Energy at One2One "Emerging Stars in Resources" Investor Event
-
05/03/10 Austar - HD to boost subscriber growth
-
05/03/10 Gold still looking good but silver, even better
Other Australia Market Wrap news
-
10/03/10 New Standard Energy Seeks to open Australian shale gas province
-
10/03/10 Krucible Metals sees further potential for high grade copper at Pilgrim in QLD
-
10/03/10 Groote Resources commences trading under new name
-
10/03/10 Hunnu Coal to acquire additional thermal coal project in Mongolia
-
10/03/10 Rimfire Pacific Mining further defines platinum system at Fifield NSW
-
09/03/10 Crossland Uranium Mines ups ante on NT uranium projects
-
09/03/10 MEG study finds '09 exploration budgets suffered steepest decline
-
08/03/10 AWH Corporation to acquire Turkish uranium project
-
08/03/10 Chinese coal production at low end of target
-
08/03/10 Magnesium prices still erratic