Australia Market extends gains; energy, miner leads

Australian share market finished session higher for second straight session on Friday, 08 July 2022, on the back of positive lead from Wall Street overnight on eased concerns over the US Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 advanced 30.05 points, or 0.45%, to 6,678.01. The broader All Ordinaries index gained 40.06 points, or 0.59%, to 6,876.97. For the week, the ASX200 gained 2.1% - its best performance since mid-March.

The top performing stocks in this index were LIFE360 INC. and ST BARBARA, up 14.3% and 9.6% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in this index were SKYCITY ENTERTAINMENT and ORORA, down 6.5% and 5.9% respectively.

Total 8 of 11 sectors ended higher along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Energy was the best performing sector, gaining +2.1% followed by materials (up 1.2%) and utilities (up 1.1%), while telecommunication was the worst performing sector, down 0.6%, followed by financial (down 0.2%).

Energy stocks surged after oil prices rebounded from a two-day decline. Woodside Energy and Santos strengthened 3.4% and 3.1%, respectively.

Mining stocks as iron ore prices in China climbed. Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals, and BHP Group rose 2.4% to 3.7%.

Tech shares were higher on tracking gain in their US peers. Xero and Computershare firmed 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively.

Among individual shares, Vulcan Energy Resources jumped as much as 11.4%, after signing a deal with the renewable energy arm of Italian electricity producer Enel SpA.

Magellan Financial (MFG) shares shed 3.0% after release of funds-under-management (FUM) update, outlining a 5.7% decrease in its total FUM over May (13.7% over the quarter) to $61.3 billion. This comprised of a monthly 5.6% drop in its institutional FUM to $39.1 billion and a monthly 5.9% fall in its retail FUM to $22.2 billion.

Gold miner St Barbara (SBM) has climbed 9.6% on the back of a well-received quarterly update. In the update, SBM said that it met its guidance after posting a 40% quarterly increase in its gold production, and a 24% quarterly increase in its cash balance to $98 million.

CURRENCY NEWS: The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 106.847. The Australian dollar was at $0.6807.

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