Australia Market rises with eyes on US-China trade talks

Headline indices of the Australian share market were up on Friday, 11 October 2019, on tracking gains on the Wall Street overnight with all eyes on outcome of high-level meeting between US and Chinese trade officials later in the day. Around late afternoon, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index grew 52.23 points, or 0.8%, to 6,599.30, while the broader All Ordinaries added 51.71 points, or 0.78%, to 6,714.60.

Investor sentiment got a boost on tracking gains on the Wall Street overnight which rose on hopes that top-level U.S.-China trade talks would yield at least a partial deal, after President Donald Trump tweeted he would meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday for further trade talks and Liu said Beijing was willing to reach an agreement with Washington to prevent any further escalation in the trade war.

The US stock market finished higher on Thursday, 10 October 2019, as investors took an optimistic stance ahead of the resumption of high-level trade talks in Washington. At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 150.66 points, or 0.6% to 26,496.67. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% to 2,938.13 while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6% to 7,950.78.

Trade negotiations between the United States and China resumed on Thursday for the first time since July 2019. The U.S. and China are currently in the midst of high-level trade negotiations in Washington.

Market participants remained focused on outcome of the trade talks in Washington D.C. between the U.S. and China with import tariffs set for $250 billion worth of Chinese goods at a rate of 30% from 25% on 15 October 2019. A 15% tariff on an additional $160 billion worth of Chinese imports is also expected to kick in on 15 December 2019. The world's two largest economies seek to reach a deal to end their protracted trade war that has seen tariffs slapped on billions of dollars worth of each other's goods since the start of 2018, battering financial markets and souring business and consumer sentiment, and driven worries over the global economic outlook.

Most of ASX sectors were higher exception being only the property sector a touch lower. Heavyweights, financials and materials were helping drive broad gains. The big four banks were all lifting by a minimum of 0.5%. ANZ Bank (ANZ) was leading its peers with a 1.1% boost. UK based bank CYBG Group (CYB), which operates UK's Clydesdale Bank, jumped 7.5% on constructive talks around a Brexit Deal.

Resources were also performing well as commodity prices, such as crude oil and iron ore, advanced on trade optimism. Iron ore miners, Rio Tinto (RIO), BHP Group (BHP) and Fortescue Metals (FMG) were all at least 2% higher. FMG has also announced a 12 month extension of its share buy-back, returning up to A$500 million back to shareholders over the period.

In company news, Michael Hill (MHJ) has climbed 16% on a solid first quarter update for FY20. Group same store sales rose 11.9% for the jeweler with strong growth in its Canadian, NZ and Australian markets.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar inclined against greenback on Friday, as hopes of progress in US-China trade talks and optimistic comments from Europe on Brexit resumed demand for high yielding currency. The Australian dollar, sensitive to shifts in broader risk appetite, changed hands at $0.6767 after jumping from levels below $0.672 yesterday.

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