Australia Market rises 1.5%

The Australian share market finished higher for a second successive session on Monday, 27 April 2020, in line with global peers, as the Bank of Japan announced a fresh round of stimulus to arrest the coronavirus outbreak's economic impact. Gains were rather broad based and across nearly every sector. Property, technology and industrials saw some of the biggest gains while financials were the only sector in the red, weighed by losses among some of the big banks. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index advanced 78.82 points, or 1.5%, to 5,321.44. The broader All Ordinaries gained by 87.83 points, or 1.65%, to 5,388.33.

Industrial stocks performed strongly with Transurban gaining 3.7% and Brambles up 4.2%. Healthcare out-performed with a gain of 6% in Sonic, 3.7% in Ramsay Healthcare, and 2.6% in CSL. Info tech and real estate sectors were up more than 3%.

Financials were down, after National Bank (NAB) announcement it would raise A$3.5 billion from shareholders and cut dividends to preserve capital. NAB remained in a trading halt, the other big banks slid in response. Westpac ended the session down 4.4% at A$14.66, ANZ Bank dropped 2.3% to A$15.65

CURRENCY NEWS: The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 100.09 after seeing levels below 100 last week. The Australian dollar reached a six-week high against the US dollar on Monday, hitting US64.69 cents.

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