Australia were up today on the back of a rally by miners and energy players, sending the All Ords up 13.5 points, or 0.28%, to 4,912.7, as investors bought into oversold stocks along with a strong lead from Japan.
The benchmark S&P ASX 200 was also up 14.1 points, or 0.29%, to 4,905.5.
The Nikkei reached reached a near five year high this morning as investors were encouraged by a report that the Bank of Japan would begin buying longer-dated bonds immediately to beat deflation in the world’s third largest economy.
Resource majors and banks
BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) was up $0.42, or 1.3%, to $32.66, Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM) was up $0.38, or 2.02%, to $19.18 while Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) gained $0.01, or 0.28%, to $3.58.
However, Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) was down $0.76, or 1.37%, to $54.84.
In the Energy sector, Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) put on $0.07, or 0.2%, to $34.86 while Santos (ASX: STO) was up $0.13, or 1.08%, to $12.18.
Origin Energy (ASX: ORG) closed up $0.11, or 0.87%, to $12.72 while Oil Search (ASX: OSH) picked up $0.01, or 0.14%, to $7.26.
Major banks posted minor gains with Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) up $0.09, or 0.13%, to $67.02, Westpac Bank (ASX: WBC) up $0.27, or 0.89%, to $30.52, ANZ Bank (ASX: ANZ) up $0.11, or 0.4%, to $27.86 and National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) almost unchanged with a $0.01, or 0.03%, tick upwards to $30.58.
Juniors
Golden Gate Petroleum (ASX: GGP) soared up 33.33% to $0.004 as it continues to fracture stimulate its SRH-5H horizontal well in Texas.
Progress is also being made on returning its SRH-1 well into production.
TZ Limited (ASX: TZL) was up 8.7% to $0.125 after reaching an agreement with Toll Group (ASX:TOL) to trial its Automated Delivery Asset Manager (A.D.A.M.) locker system.
Under the agreement, Australia’s largest logistics provider will trial the lockers as part of its specialised online B2C retail parcel delivery service, Toll Consumer Delivery.
Should the trial succeed, Toll will look to add the A.D.A.M. Parcel Locker service to its already-extensive collection network, which includes the Nparcel newsagency parcel collection service.
Azimuth Resources’ (ASX: AZH) gained 4.92% to $0.32 as it intercepted more gold at its West Omai project in Guyana.
Notable results include 5 metres at 9.7 grams per tonne gold from 52 metres, 15 metres at 0.92g/t gold from 102 metres and 2 metres at 2.7g/t gold from 19 metres, highlighting the prospectivity of the Larken Prospect.
Asian stocks
The Nikkei average climbed 2.8% to above 13,000 on Monday, to 13,192.59 points, bringing it up to a four year high.
Investors were encouraged by a report that the Bank of Japan would begin buying longer-dated bonds immediately to beat deflation.
On Friday, the Nikkei surged as much as 4.7% to above 13,000 for the first time since August 2008 before succumbing to profit taking to close up 1.6 percent at 12,833.64.
The benchmark Nikkei has surged 48% since mid-November, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled in his election campaign expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to revive the world's third-largest economy.
The Hang Seng ticked up 0.04% to 21,743.88 points while the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index was down 0.75% to 2,209.2 points.
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