Australian exchanges
MELBOURNE: The Australian share market closed higher yesterday despite fading a little in afternoon trading, with stocks boosted by strong monthly US jobs data and betterthanexpected Australian retail spending figures for April.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 35.1 points, or 0.59% at 6025.5 points at 4.30pm AEST, and the broader All Ordinaries was up 34.6 points, or 0.57%, at 6138.6 points.
CommSec market analyst Steven Daghlian said the local bourse had followed US markets higher.
‘‘There are a few things helping the market today: one is the fact that US markets were up on Friday — unemployment hit an 18year low in the US,’’ Mr Daghlian said.
US government jobs figures showed that in May the US economy added 223,000 nonfarm jobs and average hourly wages grew by 0.3% — both above economists’ estimates.
Mr Daghlian also said sentiment was helped by Italy forming a government — after months of turmoil and fears of an exit from the eurozone — and USNorth Korea talks being back on the table.
In Australia yesterday, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed that retail spending rose 0.4% in April, above the 0.3% rise the market was forecasting.
Mr Daghlian said the data showed a mixed impact, cafes and food outlets having benefited from warm weather in April but clothing retailers struggling to sell winter clothing.
On the ASX the four big banks, major miners and consumer discretionary stocks led gains.
Commonwealth Bank lifted 99c, or 1.4%, to $69.69 after agreeing to pay $A700 million to resolve proceedings brought against it over breaches of Australia’s antimoney laundering and counterterrorism laws.
Higher prices for base metals, including copper and aluminium, boosted the mining sector.
Global miner BHP Billiton gained 0.4% to $33.20.
In the retail sector, Kogan.com climbed 68c, or 7.5%, to $9.80 after the online retailer announced plans to sell its own brand of washing machines, fridges, cooktops and other household appliances.
The Kogan.com announcement weighed upon rival whitegoods retailers JB HiFi, which fell 3.3% to $23.39 and Harvey Norman, which dropped 2.8% to $3.51.
Among other retailers, Myer slumped 4.5% to 42c, but Just Jeans, Portman and Smiggle owner Premier Investments was up 0.5% at $15.88.
Bubs Australia jumped 5.5c, or 7.2%, to 82c after the infant formula provider struck a deal to supply Chinabased New Times Asia with products to be sold on up to 20 ecommerce platforms in China.
The strength in some base commodities and the ABS retail figures helped the Australian dollar gain against its US counterpart.
At 5pm AEST yesterday, the Aussie was worth US 76.31c — its highest level since late April — from US 75.48c on Friday.
National turnover was 2.6 billion securities traded, worth $4.8 billion. — AAP