Australia Market extends gain to fourth day

Australia stock market finished session modestly higher on Monday, 16 January 2023, registering fourth day of consecutive gains, led by tech and commodity stocks.

Investors are now eyeing the December unemployment report in Australia, due on Thursday, which will likely give direction to the country's central bank for its rate-hike path.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index advanced 60.08 points, or 0.82%, to 7,388.18. The broader All Ordinaries index was up 64.92 points, or 0.86%, to 7,604.99.

All 11 sectors ended higher along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Information technology was the best performing sector, gaining 1.81%, followed by energy (up 1.47%), healthcare (up 1.42%), and industrials (up 1.09%).

The top performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were SUPER RETAIL GROUP and MEGAPORT, up 7.68% and 7.46% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were CORE LITHIUM and LIONTOWN RESOURCES, down 6.17% and 3.85% respectively.

Technology stocks were among the top gainers on the index, with accounting software company Xero (up 4.6%), software company WiseTech Global (up 4%) and human resources consulting company Seek (up 3.8%) led the upward movement.

Shares of miners jumped, with iron ore behemoths BHP Group and Rio Tinto gaining 0.1% each, while heavyweight Fortescue Metals Group shed 2.1%.

Energy stocks were also higher on tracking overnight gains in oil prices. Woodside Petroleum and Santos added 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia Private Sector House Approvals Decline 2.5% In November- The total number of private sector house approvals issued in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 2.5% on month in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday - coming in at 9,142. Approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses tumbled 22.7% to 4,423 in November, while overall approvals dropped 9.0% to 13,898.

On a yearly basis, dwellings for houses shed 13.4%, approvals for dwellings excluding houses dropped 21% and overall approvals sank 15.1%. The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of total building approved fell 1.5% to A$12.388 billion in November, following a 0.4% fall in October.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar was stood at 0.6980 against greenback on Monday, depreciated by 0.09% from previous trading day closure at 0.6976 after trading in the range of 0.6967-0.7020.

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