Australian shares finished 1.47 percent higher on Thursday, with gains across all sectors as buyers emerged after steep falls in the previous session. The S&P/ASX 200 index jumped 73.6 points to end at 5,071.7 after closing at its lowest since July 2013 on Wednesday. Despite Thursday's gains, the index is still down 1.9 percent for the week. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.4 percent or 22.47 points to finish the session at 5,676.81.
"It is a sign of confidence," said Julia Lee, equities analyst at Bell Direct. "We have strongly bounced back from 5,000 points which is a key psychological level. The market has been looking oversold so it's nice to be in the black." Major banks including Commonwealth Bank and Westpac were up more than 1 percent each while property trusts - seen as defensive plays - Scentre and Good group jumped over 2.5 percent.
Senex Energy jumped as much as 24 percent on a gas sales deal with Santos Ltd's GLNG venture. Miners were mixed with Rio Tinto rising 0.5 percent while BHP Billiton traded flat. Fortescue fell 0.4 percent. "From a technical perspective, the ASX200 continues to form a classic descending triangle, which is a bearish sign formed during a downtrend," said Stuart McPhee, senior technical analyst at OANDA.
"At the same time the index volatility remains high. This tends to indicate more irrational behaviour than normal and can be a trigger for some investors to step out until the market calms a little." For more individual stocks activity click on New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index edged up 0.6 percent, or 35.71 points, to 5,690.05, within sight of a one-month peak of 5,725.89 on Wednesday.
Much of the gains came from Fonterra's fund, which provides investor exposure to the farmer-owned dairy exporter. The fund's price rose nearly 5 percent after the co-operative lifted its milk price payout forecast and reported a 183 percent rise in full-year profit. Dairy is New Zealand's top export earner and its prices have plummeted on global oversupply of milk products. Goodman Property was another outperformer, up 1.3 percent after the company announced a debt refinancing. The shares had plumbed a four-month low on Wednesday.