Australia: Miners, financials help shares post 3-week closing high

[BENGALURU] Australian shares rose for a third straight session on Monday to close at their highest level in 3 weeks, buoyed by gains in mining and financial stocks.

The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.26 per cent higher at 7,381.1, with miners climbing 1 per cent on the back of strong copper, aluminium and zinc prices amid supply constraints as electricity price hikes in Europe led to some production cuts.

Gains in the sector, which relies considerably on exports to China, were capped by the world's second-largest economy missing its third-quarter GDP growth estimates.

Sub-index heavyweights Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals and BHP Group advanced in a range of 0.9-1.9 per cent.

"The gains (in mining stocks) were a part of the broader bounce-back from sell-offs earlier this year," said Dale Raynes, associate director at CPS Capital.

Financials also helped the benchmark as they rose 1 per cent. The so-called "Big Four" banks gained between 0.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent.

Travel stocks rallied after Sydney eased more Covid-19 restrictions as vaccination rates increase. Qantas Airways added 1.1 per cent, while travel management firms Flight Centre, Corporate Travel Management and Webjet rose between 0.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent.

Energy stocks rose 0.8 per cent as oil prices hit their highest level in years on recovering demand from the pandemic and gas-to-oil switching for power generation.

Gains in financials and miners were cut by tech and gold stocks. Tech stocks slid 1.2 per cent, tracking losses in Asia from weak China data, while gold stocks dropped 1.3 per cent.

Healthcare stocks, which are more export-reliant and earn in US dollars, fell 1 per cent on the back of the greenback's weakness in the previous session.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index slipped 0.1 per cent to 12,998.51 after the country's consumer price index beat expectations in the third quarter, jumping to its highest level in more than a decade and leading to inflation fears.

REUTERS