Blue-chips power rally to post-pandemic high: ASX tracking 0.7% higher at noon

Market Reports

by Michael Luu

Text-only (non-video) report.

The Australian sharemarket opened higher and momentarily dipped into red waters in the early hours of trade, before blue-chip shares propelled the benchmark index past the 7100 mark. The post-pandemic intraday high was powered by banking and mining heavyweights, as BHP (ASX:BHP), Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), Commonwealth(ASX:CBA) and NAB (ASX:NAB) all edged higher by lunchtime.

At noon, the S&P/ASX 200 is 0.73 per cent or 51.80 points higher at 7119.70.

The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 55 points.

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector is Health Care, up 1.46 per cent. The worst-performing sector is Information Technology, down 0.66 per cent.

The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Nearmap (ASX:NEA), trading 14.56 per cent higher at $2.36. It is followed by shares in Janus Henderson Group (ASX:JHG) and Brickworks (ASX:BKW).

The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Flight Centre Travel Group (ASX:FLT), trading 4.28 per cent lower at $15.45. It is followed by shares in Netwealth Group (ASX:NWL) and Austal (ASX:ASB).


Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$1779.90 an ounce.

One Australian dollar is buying 77.34 US cents.

 

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