Australia: Stocks rally 1.94% despite Greece

[SYDNEY] Australian stocks rallied 1.94 per cent on Tuesday, shrugging off the crisis in Greece as investors snapped up oversold shares.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed 106.4 points higher at 5,581.4, reclaiming its losses from Monday, ahead of a hastily arranged emergency summit of the 19 eurozone countries in Brussels.

Phillip Capital senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said investors were realising Greece's troubles were of little consequence for Australia.

"With the equanimity from European markets, not just from yesterday but also in the past couple of weeks, people realise that if they're taking it well then why should we go down?" he said.

"Europe performed as they should and the American market went on as if it didn't happen." In late trade the Australian dollar was fetching 74.89 US cents and 67.88 euro cents, from 74.87 US cents and 67.77 euro cents at the open.

AFP