Australian Market Rises As Mining, Energy Stocks Gain; Indices Close At New High
Sydney shares closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 index touching a high of 5,575.4, up 2.3 points or 0.04% beating Thursday’s record of 5,573.1. The market rose following the gains on the Wall Street. Energy companies and big miners led the gains. Gains were limited as investors awaited the U.S. inflation data and other economic data next week in Australia. The broader All Ordinaries index closed at a record high of 5,557.0, up 6.1 points or 0.1%.
The Australian dollar ended weaker. At 5:00 p.m., the local unit was quoted at USD 0.7814-0.7819, down from Thursday’s close of USD 0.7851-0.7855.
Among miners, BHP Billiton added about half a percent, Rio Tinto gained 0.74%, Alumina edged up 0.16%, Zinifex rose 0.67% and Iluka Resources fell1.76%. Gold miner Newcrest Mining gained 0.23%, while Lihir Gold dropped 0.32% and Oxiana slipped 0.63%. Oil issue Woodside Petroleum jumped 1.22%, Oil Search surged 2.22% and Santos moved up 0.10%.
In the banking space, National Australian Bank gave away 0.40%, ANZ dropped 0.70%, Commonwealth Bank lost 0.37% and Westpac Banking tumbled 0.79%. Macquarie Bank gained 0.24%. Insurer AMP climbed 0.41%, IAG rose 0.65% and Promina added 0.44%. QBE slipped 0.63% and AXA Asia Pacific plunged about a percent. Henderson Group was unchanged.
In the retail sector, Woolworths gave away 0.09%, Coles Group and Harvey Norman Holding gained nearly 0.30%. David Jones was unchanged. Media company, John Fairfax and Seven Network lost more than 0.40%, while Publishing & Broadcasting surged 2.04%.
