Australia: Market ends higher

Australia stock market finished session slightly higher on Monday, 23 January 2023, extending gains to the fourth session and touching its highest since April 22 last year, with tech stocks leading the advance after a strong Wall Street rally at the end of last week.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 5.11 points, or 0.07%, to 7,457.27. The broader All Ordinaries index added 7.91 points, or 0.1%, to 7,674.19.

Total 6 of 11 sectors ended higher along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Information Technology was the best performing sector, gaining +1.3%, followed by energy (up 0.86%), while utilities was worst performing sector, erasing 0.5%.

The top performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were KAROON ENERGY and LIONTOWN RESOURCES, up 7.41% and 6.91% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were FISHER & PAYKEL and ADBRI, down 2.8% and 2.7% respectively.

Technology and communication services stocks powered much of Wall Street's gains as investors cheered another big quarterly surge in Netflix's subscribers. Energy stocks rose, as traders continued to focus on brightening economic prospects in key crude oil buyer China. Woodside Energy Group gained 1.7%, while Santos Ltd inched higher. Whitehaven Coal soared 6.2% on the back of record expected earnings in the first half of 2023. The biggest large-cap advancers were lithium miners Pilbara Minerals (up 6.1%) and Allkem (up 4.2%). Shares of materials and resources closed mixed. Iron ore giant BHP Group fell about 1.1%, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group slipped 0.6% and 1%, respectively. South32 rose 1.3% after the diversified miner posted 24.4% jump in second-quarter metallurgical coal output that was in line with expectations.

Lithium stocks continued to put up a good show, with Pilbara Mineral hitting a seven-week peak, while Mineral Resources closed higher for the fourth straight session.

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