Australia Market follows Wall Street rally

Headline indices of the Australian financial market closed higher on Friday, 22 March 2019, as rallies on Wall Street overnight helped improve investor sentiment. However, caution ahead of U.S.-China trade talks in Beijing next week limited the gains. ASX subsectors were mostly higher, with shares in healthcare, information technology, financials, property trusts, and energy issues being notable gainers. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index added 28.06 points, or 0.46%, at 6,195.28 points, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 27.38 points, or 0.44%, at 6,280.87.

Sydney stock market received solid support from the US. On Wall Street, the broad S&P 500 index rebounded 1.1% to 2,854.88 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8% higher to 25,962.51. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite jumped 1.4% to 7,838.96

 

Health care led gainers among ASX subsectors, with global pharmaceutical company CSL up 1.5% to A$197.19.

Shares of banks and financials were all up, with Westpac up 0.7% to A$26.51, NAB up 0.5% to A$25.09; CBA up 0.4% to A$71.43; and ANZ up 0.3% to A$26.52. Suncorp was up 1.9% to A$13.44 after it said shareholders would receive a special dividend of 8.0 cents per share from the proceeds of its Australian life insurance sale.

Energy stocks moved up as oil prices hovered around 2019 highs scaled on Thursday, supported by supply cuts by producer cartel OPEC. Woodside Petroleum rose 0.7%. Oil Search gained 1.8%, reaching a more than three-week high.

Navitas was up 2.5% to A$5.76 after AustralianSuper, private equity firm BGH and the education provider's own former CEO Rod Jones offered to buy the company for $2.3 billion.

CURRENCY: The Australian dollar eased against the U.S. dollar. The Aussie dollar was quoted at 71.07 US cents, from 71.46 US cents on Thursday.

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