Australia Market Wrap
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.
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