Australia: Shares rise on lift from financial, energy stocks

[BENGALURU] Australian shares closed higher on Wednesday, supported by gains in financial and energy stocks, on hopes that the United States was nearing a deal on a stimulus package.

The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.1 per cent higher at 6,191.80 following Tuesday's 0.7 per cent slide.

Wall Street gained overnight as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed hopes of clearing the coronavirus relief package this week, bringing some stability to markets amid heightened uncertainty ahead of the presidential election.

"At the moment where we are being pushed and shoved around by the hopes for US stimulus... hopes yet again that they are going to get something before the election," said Henry Jennings, a senior analyst and portfolio manager at Marcustoday.

Adding to the upbeat mood, AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine trial in the United States was expected to resume as early as this week, a Reuters report said.

Australia's financial sub-index rose about 1 per cent, boosted by gains in the "Big Four" banks.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking rose between 0.8 per cent and 1.6 per cent.

"If we see US futures doing well, our market will tend to follow and the banks being such a big part of our index, that's one of the places that people put their money," Mr Jennings said.

US stock futures were up 0.71 per cent.

The energy sector rose 1.3 per cent boosted by Woodside Petroleum and Santos, which gained about 2 per cent each, ahead of their quarterly production numbers on Thursday.

On the downside, healthcare stocks closed down 1.1 per cent and marked its worst session since Oct 2. Industry behemoth CSL slid 1.3 per cent, while Mesoblast declined 4.4 per cent.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index slipped 0.2 per cent to finish the session at 12,432.61, with losses led by Scales Corporation and Goodman Property Trust, which fell about 2.8 per cent each.

REUTERS