ASX lifts for sixth straight session on latest trade news

A rally in energy and mining stocks saw the ASX200 eke out a small gain during Wednesday’s trading, as the market’s ‘risk on’ sentiment continued.

The benchmark ASX200 index closed up on Wednesday, gaining 10.60 points or 0.13 per cent to 8,279.60.

The broader All Ordinaries also traded higher on Wednesday, gaining 9.50 points or 0.11 per cent to 8,520.20 and setting a new 50-day high.

The Australian dollar continued its steady rally up 0.05 per cent to 64.76 US cents.

On a mixed day six of 11 industry sectors ended in the green, leading the risk on part of the market including energy and technology.

Helping to lead the rally was the buy now pay later shares, with Zip up 5.29 per cent to $2.09 while Block closed up 6.30 per cent to $90.35.

The more defensive part of the market including consumer defensive, healthcare and utilities all finished in the red.

Origin Energy fell 1.1 per cent to $10.98, APA Group dropped 1.3 per cent to $8.16 and AGL dipped 3.45 per cent to $10.36.

The two major supermarkets finished in the red. Woolworths shares fell 0.16 per cent to $31.51 while Coles dropped 0.88 per cent to $21.33.

Morningstar equity market strategist Lochlan Halloway said the Australian gains followed a strong showing on Wall Street session overnight on the back of the tech sector continuing its rally overnight.

Nvidia was one of the main drivers, up 5.6 per cent on the back of US President Donald Trump allowing the chip maker to send its artificial intelligence microchips to China.

“It is always constructive to look into the US and a lead into what might happen in our market. It was a fairly strong showing on the US, particularly in the tech sector with the Nasdaq up nearly 2 per cent overnight,” Mr Halloway said.

“That was primarily due to further deregulation with Trump’s tariffs, including chip restrictions and that spilt over into Australia’s tech sector today.”

“The strongest was energy, which is sort of a global growth proxy sector. Oil was up, again reflecting de-escalating trade tensions and a more optimistic outlook for global growth.”

In company news Australia’s largest bank has announced bumper quarterly cash profits, but its boss warns global uncertainty could soon slow the Australian economy.

Commonwealth Bank revealed its cash profits rose 6 per cent to $2.6bn in the March quarter, on the back of strong lending to Australian businesses.

The bank said business loans surged 9.1 per cent or $3.7bn within those three months, outpacing its home-lending volumes which grew 4.1 per cent.

Importantly for shareholders, CBA said its net interest margin – a key measure of profitability – held stable in the quarter, excluding non-recurring earnings, although it did not provide the figure in its trading update.

CBA finished Wednesday up 0.82 per cent to $167.50, ANZ finished narrowly in the green up 0.070 per cent to $28.53, NAB jumped 1.38 per cent to $36.10 and Westpac was the outlier down 1.20 per cent to $31.26.

Life 360 also continued its impressive run up 9.46 per cent on Wednesday to $29.75 after releasing its quarterly earnings on Tuesday, which beat market expectations.

Insignia shares tumbled 15.75 per cent to $3.37 after it announced Bain Capital said it was walking away from its $3.4bn takeover on “macro uncertainty”.

Gaming company Aristocrat also slumped 8.85 per cent to $62.10 after posting its half-yearly results which underwhelmed the market.