Shares have continued to rally as the banks benefit from the US Federal Reserve’s decision to dilute its stimulus measures, and Telstra hits a near nine-year high.
Financial stocks drove the gains as investors partially reversed a big sell-off in the banks since November, due to Thursday’s US Fed announcement it would scale back its bond buying program from January, Australian Stock Report senior equity analyst Benny Sada says.
“That’s just removed a lot of uncertainty from the markets and we’re just … basically seeing a relief rally off that,” he said.
“The financials had been leading the declines within our market over the last month so naturally they would be the ones leading the rally.”
ANZ was the strongest of the big four, in percentage terms, gaining 65 cents, or 2.1 per cent, to $31.78.
Commonwealth Bank was $1.08 higher at $75.93, Westpac gained 20 cents at $31.57 and National Australia Bank put on 23 cents to $34.26.
Telstra hit its highest closing price since February 2005 after announcing it would sell its stake in Hong Kong mobile business CSL for around $2 billion.
The shares gained nine cents, or 1.76 per cent, to $5.20.
“Telstra’s been the other key reason behind today’s gains,” Mr Sada said.
In the resources sector, BHP Billiton added 43 cents to $37.23 and Rio Tinto added 21 cents to $66.74.
Whitehaven Coal added 5.5 cents to $1.86 after the Federal Court ruled the federal Labor government had not erred in approving the controversial Maules Creek mine in NSW.
Energy stocks also rose as a cold snap in the US sent gas prices soaring.
Woodside Petroleum added 64 cents to $38.59, Santos gained 33 cents to $14.45 and Oil Search was 11 cents higher at $8.15.
KEY FACTS
* At 1615 AEDT the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 63 points, or 1.21 per cent, at 5,265.2 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 59.5 points, or 1.14 per cent, at 5,261.5 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was 54 points higher at 5,237 points, with 26,077 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 2.2 billion securities worth $8.4 billion.
