ASX climbs nearly 2% in morning trade as miners soar
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More news: The Australian sharemarket jumped in morning trade, tracking a resurgence on Wall Street overnight, with miners and tech stocks leading the charge.
The benchmark ASX 200 index was up 1.7% to 8,625.7 at midday AEDT. Eight of the 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
Miners (+4.6%) formed the top performing segment, with gold and copper miners Greatland Resources, Capstone Copper and Pantoro Gold each adding more than 8%.
The tech sector rose 2.8%, as Life360 (+6.7%), NextDC (+4.3%) and WiseTech (+2.8%) rallied.
Energy stocks retreated as oil producers Karoon Energy (-3.3%) and Viva Energy (-2.9%) slipped.
Australian shares to open higher as Wall St rockets on war off-ramp hopes
The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to jump at the open after Wall Street stocks surged on news that Iran’s president said he is willing to end the war with the US.
The numbers: Updated at 7:50am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 90 points, or 1.06%, to 8,577.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 2.49%, S&P 500 up 2.91% and the Nasdaq up 3.83%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.57%, DAX up 0.52% and FTSE 100 up 0.48%.
- Spot gold: up 3.50% to USD4,673 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent down 4.40% to USD102.75/bbl and US WTI down 1.92% to USD100.92/bbl.
- AUD: up 0.74% at 69.00 US cents.
- Bitcoin: up 1.99% to USD68,003
The context: Wall Street’s three major indices each saw their biggest advance since May last year, with more than three-quarters of the S&P 500 stocks rising as US oil prices retreated. Gains by megacaps Nvidia (+5.6%), Alphabet (+5.0%) and Microsoft (+3.1%) paced the rally.
Traders were spurred by an announcement from Iran’s official news agency that the country’s president was willing to end the war with the US. It came after The Wall Street Journal reported that US President Donald Trump told aides he’s willing to end the military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.
