Text-only (non-video) report.The Australian sharemarket strengthened its foothold in positive territory and extended the broad-based advance after lunchtime. The ASX200 steered into uncharted waters past the 7300 mark for the first time ever, as the index hit an intraday record high of 7301.
Upbeat sentiment spread across the blue-chip segment, as gains by the big four banks. CSL, Woolworths and Wesfarmers uplifted the market to its third consecutive close this week. The record-high finish also extended the run of advances to three straight weeks.
Materials bucked the upward trend and missed out on the party, as iron ore players defied the rising price of benchmark iron ore. Shares in BHP and Rio Tinto slumped 1.8 and 2.1 per cent respectively.
At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.49 per cent or 35.30 points higher at 7295.40.
Futures
The Dow Jones futures are pointing to a fall of 28.00 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a fall of 3.25 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a fall of 20.25 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 31 points when the market next opens.
Best and worst performers
The best-performing sector was Utilities, up 1.39 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Materials, down 1.48 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was ARB Corporation (ASX:ARB), closing 6.26 per cent higher at $45.00. It was followed by shares in Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Bank (ASX:BEN).
The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR), closing 8.22 per cent lower at $1.73. It was followed by shares in Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) and Appen (ASX:APX).
Asian markets
Japan's Nikkei has lost 0.41%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng has lost 0.43%.
China's Shanghai Composite has gained 0.34%.
Wall Street
Over the last four trading days, the Dow Jones gained 0.14 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.27 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 0.99 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$1870.92 an ounce.
Iron ore is 0.90 per cent higher at US$210.99 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a fall of 2.10 per cent.
Light crude is trading $0.08 higher at US$66.36 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 76.61 US cents.
