The Australian sharemarket advanced on Thursday, buoyed by a sharp rally in energy stocks and gold miners after the price of the haven asset surged to a fresh high.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.8 per cent, or by 60.6 points, to 7819.1 at the closing bell, with ten out of the 11 sectors in the green. The benchmark notched a weekly gain of 0.8 per cent.
The All Ordinaries added 0.8 per cent.
Energy was the best performing sector, rallying 3.8 per cent, in line with a higher crude oil price. Woodside shares added 3.9 per cent to $20.07, Karoon increased 7.6 per cent to $1.34, Ampol jumped 7.7 per cent to $22.24. Santos rallied 2.9 per cent to $5.65 after it recorded an increase in its production to 21.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
ASX gold producers also recorded large gains, with Bellevue Gold rallying 1.6 per cent to 98¢, Evolution Mining adding 1.7 per cent to $8.46 and Northern Star Resources up 1.2 per cent to $22.35. The rally in gold stocks tracked the increase in the precious metal price after it surged to a fresh high on haven demand.
Bullion gained as much as 2.7 per cent on Wednesday to climb above $US3300 an ounce for the first time, surpassing the previous record set on Monday.
The latest data showed that Australian employment increased by 32,200 in March, following a drop of 52,800 the previous month. The unemployment rate held at 4.1 per cent. Money markets modestly dialled back on expectations of a jumbo half a percentage point rate cut in May after robust jobs data.
Overnight on Wall Street, US indices sank after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned that trade tensions could spur inflation and the central bank was in no rush to cut interest rates. The S&P 500 Index sank 2.2 per cent and the Nasdaq 100 Index plunged 3 per cent.
Wealth giant Challenger rallied 10.2 per cent to $6.80 after it narrowed its FY25 normalised net profit guidance to between $450 million and $465 million in its third quarter trading update. The company previously pencilled in a range of $440 million to $480 million. It was the best performing stock on the ASX 200.
AMP rallied 3.2 per cent to $1.145 after its platforms business recorded an increase in net cash flows to $740 million, according to the company’s latest quarterly update. Still, its platforms business assets under management declined to $78.8 billion from $79.8 billion, due to volatility in investment markets.
BHP shipped a weaker-than-expected volume of Australian iron ore over the past three months. Even so, it was still better than two of the previous four years when weather disruptions were less severe. Shares still rallied 1.1 per cent to $36.48.
Insignia Financial shares added 3.3 per cent to $3.72 after the company extended the due diligence period for its private equity suitors, Bain Capital and CC Capital, by another four weeks at their request.
Pilbara jumped 4.4 per cent to $1.43 after dropping earlier. The miner blamed the impact of a severe tropical cyclone and the mothballing of one of its plants for a drop in production and revenues at the ASX-listed lithium miner.
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