SYDNEY: Australian stocks Wednesday recorded a second-straight day of gains despite Greece defaulting on its IMF debt as banks strengthened and the market was buoyed by a US$6.8 billion bid for a local port operator.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 56.7 points to finish at 5,515.7.
“I think there’s a mixture of wait-and-see,” Leyland Private Asset Management senior portfolio manager Rohan Schmidt told AFP about Greece’s uncertain future ahead of a weekend referendum.
“The American market was fairly benign overnight… and Australia’s just entering into its new financial year so a lot of the pressure of the tax loss selling is off our market and there’s a little bit of accumulation of high-quality stocks today.” Logistics stocks were boosted by a bid from Canada-based Brookfield Infrastructure Group for Australian ports and rail operator Asciano.
