The Australian Share market continues recovering from punishing recent losses, with a strong opening encouraged by overseas gains.
A second consecutive day of gains on Wall street capped off a global rally, pushing local shares higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 369.26 points (2.27 per cent) on Thursday to 16,654.77.
CMC Markets chief market analyst Rick Spooner said investors were starting to take advantage of last week’s bruising price falls and Wall Street’s confidence-restoring performance.
“People are just a bit mystified why the market sell off happened as hard as it did which opened up value opportunities and people are scrambling to take advantage of those,” he said.
“The market was encouraged to see stronger than expected US GDP growth which offset concerns about the weakening of Chinese growth rates.”
The materials sector led this morning’s gains, helped along by climbing oil and commodities prices.
The big miners all opened strongly, with BHP jumping $1.17 to $25.23, Rio Tinto up $1.54 to $50.35 and Fortescue Metals gained 11.7 cents to $1.90.
Woolworth’s shares maintained yesterday’s gains despite the company posting a 12.5 per cent slide in its full year profit.
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Shares in the retailer rose 46 cents to $27.49, as the company announced chairman Ralph Waters would step down.
Shares in Slater and Gordon, the world’s first publicly listed law firm, rose 60 cents to $3.55 after reporting a $82.3 million net profit for 2014/15, up 5.6 per cent on last year.
The big four banks were up, with Westpac gaining 30 cents to $31.94, NAB up 29 cents to $31.85, Commonwealth rose 55 cents to $76.98 and ANZ up 35 cents to $28.92.
– AAP
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