Australia: Miners, financials help shares snap two-day loss

[BENGALURU] Australia shares snapped a two-session loss to advance more than 1 per cent on Thursday, with heavyweight miners and financials boosting the benchmark, as stock indices in the United States and Europe made a partial recovery from a heavy sell-off.

The S&P/ASX 200 index was up 1.1 per cent at 7,274.30, as of 0047 GMT. However, the benchmark was on track to post its first quarterly loss since September 2020 quarter.

Investors sought to staunch the bleeding after world stock markets on Wednesday suffered their worst rout since January even as they were looking out for remarks from US Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the ongoing debt ceiling debate.

Australia-listed finanicals rose 1.5 per cent, led by shares of Zip, which were on track for their best session in more than a month after the buy-now-pay-later company entered an agreement with Microsoft for the US market.

The "Big Four" banks gained between 1.8 per cent and 1.6 per cent. Miners were up 0.7 per cent, posting partial rebounds from losses earlier this week with Piedmont Lithium rising 5.1 per cent to lead gains in the index.

Shares of South32 scaled to their highest level in a week after the diversified miner said it will exercise the right to buy a 25 per cent stake in Mozambique-based Mozal Aluminium for US$250 million.

Gold stocks bucked the trend to fall 0.7 per cent as bullion prices eased with a firmer dollar making the metal more expensive for holders of other currencies. West African and De Grey Mining were top gainers in the index, advancing 3.2 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.06 per cent at 29,563.07 points while S&P 500 E-mini futures were up 0.4 per cent.

Across the Tasman sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.8 per cent to 13,230.10 points with healthcare and real estate stocks leading gains in the bechmark index.

REUTERS