The share market has posted a third straight day of gains as major central banks leave their interest settings unchanged to help stimulate economic growth.
The gains were led by resource and energy giants Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Woodside Petroleum.
The benchmark S&P ASX/200 index rose by 0.65 per cent, mimicking gains on Wall Street after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and flagged the possibility of a rate hike before the end of 2016.
The Bank of Japan announced changes to its monetary policy, but left its negative interest rates unchanged.
Investors dived back into the local market following the US Federal Reserve’s announcement, optionsXpress market analyst Ben Le Brun said.
“We’re rallying on central bank action once again, which has been pretty much been the story of the last five or six years, probably even more,” he said.
Rio Tinto jumped $1.55 to $49.20 , BHP gained 56 cents to $21.28, and energy companies Woodside, Oil Search and Origin Energy rose by between one and 3.7 per cent after oil prices rose buy up to three per cent overnight.
The big four bank lost most of their early gains to close either flat or fractionally higher.
ANZ shed one cent to $27.23 after it said it will book a $145 million pre-tax charge after settling a dispute with Indian business couple Pankaj and Radhika Oswal over the receivership and sale of their Australian fertiliser business.
Retail giant Premier Investments fell 33 cents to $16.17 after reporting a 18 per cent jump in annual net profit, which came in a “little bit wide” of analyst expectations, Mr Le Brun said.
Australia’s second biggest internet provider, TPG Telecom, regained some of the ground lost in the past two days, gaining 29 cents to $8.92.
KEY FACTS:
* The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rose 34.9 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 5,374.5 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index rose 36.9 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 5,466.3 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was up 31 points at 5,354 points, with 26,678 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 2.8 billion securities traded, worth $5.5 billion.
