Australian shares have opened higher, taking cues from a strong Wall Street on Friday.
Key points:
- The benchmark index rises for a fourth straight session
- Wall Street main indexes closed higher on Friday, boosted by tech stocks
- European stocks also finished higher as Russia-Ukraine peace talks continue
The ASX 200 was up 0.8 per cent, to 7,350, by 10:31am AEDT, with tech stocks leading the way.
Block surged 9.2 per cent, to $184.40, while Life360 up 6.4 per cent, to $5.60, and Zip up 5 per cents, to $1.69.
Among the worst performers were De Grey Mining (-6.9pc), Atlas Arteria (-3.6pc) and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals (-2.3pc).
Woolworths gained 0.1 per cent, to $36.10, after the company’s announcement it would phase out its 15-cent plastic shopping bags in Western Australia over the next month.
The Australian dollar was flat, at 74.09 US cents, this morning.
Wall Street rallies
Global equity markets gained on Friday after traders cheered a Russian bond payment that averted a historic sovereign default, while gold prices dropped as demand for the safe-haven metal eased after the start of the US interest rate hike cycle.
The Russian finance ministry announced on Thursday that it had sent funds to cover $US117 million in coupon payments on $2-denominated sovereign bonds that came due this week.
Those payments calmed investor worries that a Russia sovereign default, which would have been its first in a century, could rattle already nervous markets. Western sanctions have hobbled Russia’s financial dealings since it invaded Ukraine on February 24.
“If you think about where we could have been if Western governments had disallowed the use of frozen funds for coupon payments on Russian sovereign bonds, we would be sitting on a default [by] a world economy,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Virginia.
“As a result of that, some of the biggest impacts to the global financial system are being put off into the future: That’s good.”
MSCI’s gauge of world stocks, which tracks equities in 50 countries across the globe gained 0.9 per cent.
European stocks closed higher as peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict continued amid heavy fighting.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.9 per cent.
Wall Street’s three major indexes closed higher, boosted by recently battered technology stocks, after talks between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping over the Ukraine crisis ended without any big surprises.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8 per cent, to 34,754.93, the S&P 500 gained 1.17 per cent, to 4,463.12, and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.05 per cent, to 13,893.84.
“We’re in the middle of a relief rally after such a deep sell-off in tech in advance of the likely path of rates by the Fed. Now that they’ve basically removed all the uncertainty about rates, tech stocks can reprice,” Cox added.
On oil markets, Brent crude was up, trading at $US109.74 a barrel, near 11am AEDT.
ABC/Reuters
