Australia: Shares rise as tech stocks track Wall Street peers higher

[BENGALURU] Australian shares rose on Wednesday, led by technology stocks as they mirrored sharp gains among their Wall Street peers overnight, while strong domestic earnings reports also boosted sentiment.

The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.4 per cent to 6,846.60 by 0110 GMT, with gains across the board. The benchmark slid 0.6 per cent on Tuesday.

Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a record high for the fifth session in a row, boosted by gains in tech giants Apple, Amazon.com and Alphabet.

This helped Australia's technology sector gain over 2 per cent, with Afterpay rising 2.3 per cent and Wisetech advancing 1.8 per cent.

Shares of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) jumped as much as 1.2 per cent, after the country's largest lender declared a higher dividend than from six months ago as it beat first-half cash profit estimates.

The stock, however, later erased all gains to fall more than 1 per cent.

The heavyweight financial index gained as much as 2 per cent, helped by Insurance Australia Group's near 6 per cent jump, its biggest intraday percentage rise in 10 months, after the insurer posted better-than-expected half yearly core earnings.

Gold stocks strengthened nearly 2 per cent, buoyed by Northern Star Resources' over 5 per cent gain, after the gold miner reported a 46 per cent rise in half-year net profit attributable and declared an interim dividend of 9.5 Australian cents per share.

The energy sub-index gained over 1 per cent, boosted by stronger oil prices. Oil prices rose on Tuesday for a seventh straight session to hit a 13-month high.

Viva Energy advanced about 6 per cent, while Origin Energy added 1.8 per cent.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index slipped 0.4 per cent to 12,876.65.

Top losers were Meridian Energy and Restaurant Brands New Zealand, falling 3.7 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively.

REUTERS