Australia: Stocks rise 0.50% after Greece default

[SYDNEY] Australian stocks rose 0.50 per cent at the open Wednesday after Greece became the first developed country to default on its debt to the International Monetary Fund.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was trading 27.1 points higher at 5,486.1 as Greece missed the deadline to make a 1.5-billion-euro (S$2.3-billion) payment.

"Greece's failure to meet the deadline on its IMF payment looks to have been fully anticipated by markets," said CMC Markets chief analyst Ric Spooner.

"Barring unknowns, the next critical event for markets will be the outcome of Sunday's referendum," he added, referring to a vote called by Greek premier Alexis Tsipras on whether to accept bailout reform plans.

In early trade the Australian dollar was fetching 76.98 US cents, from 76.71 US cents late Tuesday. It was buying 69.13 euro cents from 68.72 euro cents on Tuesday.

AFP