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 performersThe 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 dollarGold is trading at US$1779.90 an ounce.
One Australian dollar is buying 77.34 US cents.