Australia Market gains after business conditions gauge hits record

The Australian share market finished session higher after zigzagging between gains and losses on Tuesday, 08 June 2021, as key U.S. jobs data coming in below expectations helped eased concerns over the U.S. Federal Reserve moving to taper its stimulus measures. Meanwhile, decline in new coronavirus cases and rise in NAB's business conditions data to record high boosted appetite for risk assets.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 10.70 points, or 0.15%, up at 7,292.59. The broader All Ordinaries rose 10.76 points, or 0.14%, to 7,542.34.

Total 8 of 11 S&P/ASX200 sectors ended higher, with the best performing sectors was information technology (up 1.45%), followed by healthcare (up 0.82%), realty (up 0.81%), industrials (up 0.35%), utilities (up 0.31%), energy (up 0.26%), and consumer discretionary (up 0.26%), while materials (down 0.31%) was worst performing sector, followed by consumer staples (down 0.21%).

The best performing stocks in the S&P/ASX200 were Mesoblast (up 8.76%), EML Payments (up 6.03%), Pointsbet Holdings (up 5.95%), Wisetech Global (up 5.84%), and Nearmap (up 4.55%), while the worst performing stocks were Collins Foods (down 2.55%), The A2 Milk Company (down 2.06%), NIB Holdings (down 2.06%), Altium (down 1.98%), and Metcash (down 1.92%).

Tech stocks tracked the Nasdaq higher, with Afterpay, Xero and Appen climbing 1-3%. Nearmap rallied 4.6% and Wisetech Global shares surged as much as 5.8%.

Miners BHP, Fortescue Metals Group and Rio Tinto fell about 1% as iron ore prices declined. Gold miner Northern Star Resources rose over 1% as gold held near the key level of $1,900 an ounce in Asian trade on dollar weakness and lower bond yields.

ECONOMIC NEWS: National Australia Bank's index of business conditions, which measures profits, sales and employment, climbed to all-time highs +37 in May from 32 in April, with strength reported across all industries. The ongoing strength in conditions is promising - as it suggests the economy has continued to grow after recovering its pre-COVID level in the first quarter.

On Monday, S&P Global Ratings raised its outlook on Australia's long-term credit rankings to stable from negative, and reaffirmed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term unsolicited credit ratings on Australia.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7741, largely holding on to gains after last week's climb from below $0.768.

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