Australia shares end higher on tech, gold stocks boost

Australian shares snapped a five-day losing streak to end higher on Monday, helped by gains in local tech stocks that rallied on the back of a positive finish on Wall Street on Friday.

The S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.4% to end the trade at 7,489.9 points.

Wall Street rallied to close sharply higher on Friday, as concerns eased over whether the US Federal Reserve would tighten its dovish monetary policy sooner than expected.

The rally boosted the local tech index, gaining 1.7% at close and notching its highest levels since February 16 earlier in the session.

Buy-now-pay-later juggernaut Afterpay climbed 2.8%. AI firm Appen Ltd was the top gainer on the sub-index, up 7.1%.

"We are following the US market higher and similar to U.S_the tech/growth is leading it. Tech and healthcare are holding up the market today," Mathan Somasundaram, the Chief Executive Director of Deep Data Analytics, said.

Australia's gold miners were the top gainers on the ASX 200 benchmark, up 1.8%, helped by firm gold prices as Delta coronavirus variant concerns loomed large.

The jump was led by De Grey Mining Ltd, up 7.3%, followed by Chalice Mining Ltd, gaining 5.4?%. ASX 300 metals and mining index rose 0.5% led by Pilbara Minerals Ltd, up 11.4%.

On the fag end of the benchmark were energy firms, down 0.3%, dragged lower by 4.8% drop in Ampol Ltd's shares.

Ampol slumped to its lowest levels since February 22 during the session, as it flagged that its fuel volumes had been impacted by the latest round of virus-led restrictions.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index ended up nearly 1% to finish the session at 13,064.07 points. The top gainer on the index was fuel supplier Z Energy Ltd, climbing over 14% on a NZ$1.97 bln ($1.35 bln) takeover bid from Australia's Ampol.