SYDNEY/WELLINGTON: Australian shares closed higher on Monday with heavyweight energy and mining firms leading the charge, as lifting of border curbs in the country's two most populous states boosted risk appetite, while New Zealand ended firmer on record retail sales.
The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.3% higher after rising as much as 0.8% during the session. New South Wales and Victoria reopened their borders on Monday after more than four months of closure to contain the Covid-19 spread.
Oil prices extended gains, sending the energy sub-index up 2.8% on hopes of a recovery in demand after successful vaccine trials. Ampol, among the biggest percentage gainers on ASX200, surged more than 8% after the fuel supplier announced an off-market share buyback.
Reopening of the borders should see a surge in air traffic between Melbourne and Sydney, one of the busiest routes in the world before the pandemic. The pandemic-hit travel and tourism stocks gained as states rolled back border closures, with Qantas, Sydney Airport and Regional Express all ending in the black.
The mining sub-index recorded its best session in two weeks with global miners BHP and Rio Tinto climbing 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively. Theme park operator Village Roadshow surged nearly 17% after receiving a sweetened takeover offer from BGH Capital, while bourse operator ASX fell on the news of country's corporate regulator launching an investigation into an outage at the country's stock exchange last week.
In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index edged 0.5% higher to finish the session at 12501.74. The gains came as retail sales in the pacific island nation jumped by a record 28% in the third quarter, recovering strongly from an historic 14.6% drop the previous quarter.
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