SYDNEY: The Australian market has opened stronger for a second straight day following strong gains on Wall Street and in Europe overnight and commodity price improvements.
At the 10.15am (AEST) official market open, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index had risen 55.8 points, or 1.09 per cent, to 5078, while the broader All Ordinaries lifted 54.5 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 5188.
On Wall Street, the key bourses rose more than 2 per cent after a one-day hiatus to mark Labor Day while upwardly revised GDP figures in Europe saw French, German and UK markets rise more than 1 per cent. The moves followed improvements on China’s main stock market yesterday.
IG market Chris Weston said mining stocks were set to benefit today from strong positive moves in oil, copper and iron ore futures.
“But the price action in the energy space will get a key look in again today,” he said.
“The fact that Oil Search closed at $7.90, and therefore a 3.3 per cent premium to the implied offer from Woodside Petroleum, suggests the market is expecting a fresh bid to emerge at some stage.”
Locally, in economic news on Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases July’s housing finance data and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Sentiment is also due out.
Financial stocks led the gains, up 1.52 per cent overall as Commonwealth Bank rose 2.25 per cent to $75.84 and ANZ gained 2.18 per cent to $28.13.
National Australia Bank added 1.62 per cent to $30.69 while Westpac was 1.38 per cent stronger to $30.94.
Materials stocks lifted 0.4 per cent but BHP Billiton fell 1.46 per cent to $24.34 while Rio Tinto gained 2.07 per cent to $51.26. Fortescue Metals soared 6.63 per cent to $2.09 after
Energy stocks were another strong improver, up 0.92 per cent as Woodside Petroleum recovered some of yesterday’s 3 per cent losses by rising 0.61 per cent to $29.84 while Santos jumped 3.96 per cent to $4.57. Elsewhere, Oil Search lost some of its 17 per cent takeover-related gains from Tuesday’s session, retreating 3.1 per cent to $7.655 while peers Beach Energy rose 1.68 per cent to 60.5 cents and AWE lifted 4.51 per cent to $75.25.
