Australian shares rebounded on Thursday after three straight sessions, lifted by banking shares, while investors globally tried to assess the timeline of rate interest cuts by the US Federal Reserve.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.8% to 7,609.80 by 0104 GMT.
The benchmark fell 0.7% on Wednesday.
Market expectations for a cut by the Fed in June of at least 25 basis points stand at 78.5%, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool, after US prices pressures came in hotter-than-expected on Tuesday.
Moreover, local January employment data was surprisingly weak, while the jobless rate climbed to a two-year high in another sign the labour market was easing.
The financials sub-index was leading the benchmark, trading nearly 1% higher, with the “big four” banks rising between 0.7% and 0.9%.
Information technology firms gained as much as 6.3%, to hit their highest level since Jan. 13, 2022, following their Wall Street peers on the Nasdaq Composite Index.
Wesfarmers jumped as much as 5%, its highest level since Aug. 26, 2021, after the Perth-based conglomerate posted a better-than-expected half-year profit.
It lifted discretionary consumer stocks by about 2.9% to hit their highest in almost two years.
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Origin Energy surged as much as 3.9%, its biggest intraday gain since Oct. 10, after the energy retailer posted a multi-fold jump in underlying profit and forecast higher operating earnings from its energy markets division.
Bucking the trend, heavy-weight mining stocks fell 0.7%, dragged by mining giant BHP Group, which retreated as much as 1.9%, its lowest since Nov. 9.
BHP said that it would record a $2.5 billion non-cash impairment charge for its Western Australia Nickel business and another $3.2 billion in relation to its Samarco dam failure.
New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.1% to 11,647.73.
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