Text-only (non-video) report.The Australian sharemarket extended its advance in the afternoon trading session, as banks joined forces with miners to stage a broader comeback from yesterday’s weak performance. All the big four banks soared today. The Commonwealth Bank led the charge and was tracking 0.8 per cent higher in closing trade.
The travel and tourism sector has bounced back from yesterday’s panic sell-offs, as the NSW Health authority recorded no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 by 11am. Shares in Flight Centre, Corporate Travel and Webjet all made advances of over per cent by the close of trade
Health and tech stocks weighed on the market today, capping wider gains and dragging the market down from an intraday high of 7101. Their representatives Pro Medicus
(ASX:PME) and Afterpay
(ASX:APT) were among the worst performers by 4pm.
Ending May’s first trading week in positive territory also meant the ASX200 had disrupted its straight run of two weekly losses.
Economic newsThe Reserve Bank of Australia has forecast the consumer price index and the inflation rate to return to its target band between 2 and 3 per cent by the end of FY 23. This is in line with its estimate of the speed of inflation growth. The bank has identified Australian household consumers’ tendency to spend “unusually large amount of additional savings” as the deciding factor for its decision whether or not to implement a quantitative tightening approach.
At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.27 per cent or 19.10 points higher at 7080.80. Over the week, it closed 0.78 per cent or 55 points higher.
FuturesThe Dow Jones futures are pointing to a rise of 10.00 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a rise of 3.50 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a rise of 28.75 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 23 points when the market next opens.
Best and worst performersThe best-performing sector was Materials, up 1.13 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Information Technology, down 2.34 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Webjet
(ASX:WEB), closing 7.42 per cent higher at $4.78. It was followed by shares in Flight Centre Travel Group
(ASX:FLT) and Corporate Travel Management
(ASX:CTD).
The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Pro Medicus
(ASX:PME), closing 7.77 per cent lower at $42.38. It was followed by shares in Nearmap
(ASX:NEA) and Afterpay
(ASX:APT).
Asian marketsJapan's Nikkei has gained 0.05%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng has gained 0.07%.
China's Shanghai Composite has lost 0.30%.
Wall StreetOver the last four trading days, the Dow Jones gained 1.95 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.49 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 2.42 per cent.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at US$1818.21 an ounce.
Iron ore is 4.90 per cent higher at US$201.88 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 5.72 per cent.
Light crude is trading $0.35 higher at US$63.06 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 77.72 US cents.
