The Australian sharemarket edged ahead at the open and bounced back from yesterday’s lows, reaching a new intraday high of 7316 in the morning session.
Despite the mixed handover from Wall Street, investor appetite remained strong in the property, healthcare and tech sectors.
Australian stock investors took hints from the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s overnight rise of 0.5 per cent to upgrade their infotech holdings, as Afterpay
(ASX:APT) and Xero
(ASX:XRO) were tracking 0.9 per cent and 0.4 per cent higher respectively by midday.
Mining stocks were the weak link in morning trade. Iron ore players sustained damage from a fall in iron ore prices, as BHP
(ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto
(ASX:RIO) took hits of 0.9 and 0.6 per cent by lunchtime.
At noon, the S&P/ASX 200 is 0.13 per cent or 9.70 points higher at 7291.60.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 22 points.
Economic newsNational Australia Bank
(ASX:NAB) has released data indicating business conditions notched a record high of 37 index points in May, extending the streak of record highs to two consecutive weeks. However, business confidence bucked the optimistic movement and shed 3 points in the period.
Best and worst performers
The best-performing sector is Real Estate Investment Trusts, up 0.91 per cent. The worst-performing sector is Materials, down 0.19 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Mesoblast (ASX:MSB), trading 5.65 per cent higher at $1.87. It is followed by shares in EML Payments (ASX:EML) and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC).
The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Collins Foods (ASX:CKF), trading 2.71 per cent lower at $12.20. It is followed by shares in Nuix (ASX:NXL) and ASX (ASX:ASX).
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$1898.53 an ounce.
Iron ore is 2.4 per cent lower at US$202.42 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a fall of 2.5 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 77.52 US cents.
