Australian shares rose 0.37 percent on Thursday, as a cautious tone by the Federal Reserve and rising oil prices underpinned risk assets. The S&P/ASX 200 index climbed to 4,964.10 at the close of trade. The benchmark rose 0.4 percent on Wednesday as it bounced from one month lows. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose by 0.3 percent or 21 points to finish the session at 6755.23, flirting with but falling shy of a record high reached on Tuesday.
The energy sector rallied 1.2 percent as oil prices gained. WorleyParsons leapt 4 percent, pulling back from a 10-year trough touched earlier this week. Beach Energy was another outperformer, up 4.2 percent, closely followed by Santos and Whitehaven Coal each up 3.8 percent. Miners were swept higher with BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, both up more than 1 percent. Bargain hunters helped banks regain some ground following recent hefty losses.
Westpac rose 1.12 percent, having touched six-week lows on Wednesday. National Australia Bank and Australia & New Zealand Bank rose 0.4 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia edged up 0.2 percent. Financial stocks have been battered on fears of rising bad debt.
Comments
Comments are closed.