Australia S&P/ASX 200 index briefly 6,300 marks

Headline indices of the Australia stock market inclined on Friday, 27 July 2018, with every sector traded higher, led by materials and energy companies on the back of jump in crude oil and base metal prices, followed by financials and consumer goods stocks. Around late afternoon, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index added 49 points, or 0.8%, to 6,293.50. The broader All Ordinaries Index rose 47.72 points, or 0.75%, to 6,385.30.

Shares of energy and materials sectors were key contributor to the index rally, on the back of solid gains in crude oil and base prices. Base metal prices rose by up to 0.7% on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday with nickel up the most, exception being Zinc which was down by 0.1%. Global crude oil prices rose again on Thursday after Saudi Arabia temporarily halted oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandeb shipping lane in the Red Sea after an attack on two oil tankers. Investors were also encouraged by the EU-US trade talks. Brent crude rose by US61 cents or 0.8% to US$74.54 a barrel and the US Nymex rose by US31 cents or 0.4% to US$69.61 a barrel. Among Energy stocks, Santos, Woodside Petroleum, and Oil Search inclined in a range of 0.4% to 2%.

Index heavyweight BHP Billiton gained after the company agreed to sell its under-performing onshore U.S. oil and gas assets to BP and Merit Energy for $10.8 billion and also said it expects to incur a one-time charge of about $2.8 billion in its full-year results.

Shares of gold miners were mixed after gold prices declined overnight. The gold futures price fell by US$6.10 an ounce or 0.5% to $1,223.70 an ounce. The spot gold price was trading near US$1,223 an ounce in late US trade. Evolution Mining lost almost 4%, while Newcrest Mining gained 2% after reporting a 15% increase in fourth-quarter gold output.

Shares of banks and financial companies were up, with big four banks - ANZ Banking, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac - higher in a range of 0.4% to 1.3%.

AMP shares fell after announcing that it expects H1FY18 underlying profit to be in an estimated range $490-500 million & Targeting an FY18 dividend payout at lower end of 70-90% guidance range. The results are expected to include a provision of $290 million (post-tax) for potential advice remediation in relation to recent ASIC reports.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar weakened against greenback and other major currencies on the back of rising commodity prices. In Asian trade, the local unit was at US73.80 cents. The Aussie dollar fell from highs near US74.45 cents to lows near US73.70 cents.

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