Australia Market rises 1.5% on US-China trade talks hope

Headline indices of the Australia share market extended gains on Friday, 30 August 2019, as risk sentiments bolstered on tracking a solid lead from Wall Street overnight amid renewed hopes for progress in trade discussions after positive signals from Beijing on US-China trade. Gains are across the board with tech, financials, energy, and materials sectors being notable gainers, whereas the consumer discretionary was main underperformer weighed by fall for Wesfarmers as it trades ex-dividend. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index inclined 96.80 points, or 1.49%, to 6,604.20, while the broader All Ordinaries added 92.94 points, or 1.41%, to 6,698.60.

U.S. stocks rallied Thursday amid renewed hopes for progress in the trade dispute between the U.S. and China. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 326.15 points, or 1.3%, to 26362.25. The S&P 500 added 36.64 points, or 1.3%, to 2924.58. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 116.51 points, or 1.5%, to 7973.39.

Risk sentiments underpinned on hopes that trade tensions between the United States and China might ease after Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng told on Thursday that Beijing hopes Washington can cancel the planned tariff increase to avoid an escalation in the trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump said some discussions took place on Thursday, with more talks scheduled.

Shares of banks and financials closed stronger. The "big four" banks added between 1.3% and 1.6%.

Materials and resources were also higher, with sector titans BHP Group and Rio Tinto climbing as much as 1.8% and 2.5%, respectively.

Tech stocks surged, inspired by overnight strength in trade-sensitive Wall Street peers. Data centre operator NEXTDC and buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay Touch Group notched up 6.1% and 4.6%, respectively. Afterpay shares gained after solid customer growth numbers it posted this week.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar weakened against greenback on Thursday, after the latest private capital expenditure data revealed a fall in business investment and a flat outlook. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6715 after seeing an earlier high of $0.6736.

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