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The Australian sharemarket climbed to new heights thanks to a positive lead from Wall Street, with resources stocks leading the gains amid plenty of reasons to feel bullish about the sector.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index surged 1.06 per cent to 7386.4 – a closing record high and just 20 points off its all-time intraday peak of 7406 reached on June 16 – while the All Ordinaries Index jumped 1.03 per cent to 7658.9.
“The Aussie market continues to get its direction from US stocks, which happened to lift last night by about 0.8 per cent,” CommSec analyst Steve Daghlian said.
“That’s helpful and that’s a reason why the market is up for the second straight day.”
Before the record close, Mr Daghlian said the ASX hadn’t been going anywhere in a hurry since hitting its best levels on June 16, trading in a narrow 200 point range.
“Part of the reason has been concern over the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and of course lockdown uncertainty,” he said.
The fresh peak, however, came after discouraging news from Victoria, which recorded 26 new locally acquired cases – the state’s highest daily case number this year – while NSW had its worst day for this outbreak with 124 new cases.
The energy sector was the top performer, up 2.5 per cent.
Woodside rose 3.2 per cent to $22.58, Origin lifted 2.5 per cent to $4.48, Santos gained 2.59 per cent to $6.74 and its takeover target Oil Search firmed 0.99 per cent to $4.08.
The materials sector was second best, gaining 2.2 per cent.
