Australia shares rise on lift from financial, energy stocks

Goodman New Zealand and Goodman Property Services

21/10/2020 06:47

* "Big Four" banks boost financial sub-index
    * Woodside, Santos advance ahead of qtrly production on
Thursday
    * Healthcare stocks mark worst session since Oct.2

 (Updates to close)
    By Nikhil Subba
    Oct 21 (Reuters) - Australian shares closed higher on
Wednesday, supported by gains in financial and energy stocks, on
hopes that the United States was nearing a deal on a stimulus
package.    
    The S&P/ASX 200 index  .AXJO  closed 0.1% higher at 6,191.80
following Tuesday's 0.7% slide.    
    Wall Street gained overnight as U.S. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi expressed hopes of clearing the coronavirus relief
package this week, bringing some stability to markets amid
heightened uncertainty ahead of the presidential election.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nW1N2G600Q
    "At the moment where we are being pushed and shoved around
by the hopes for U.S. stimulus... hopes yet again that they are
going to get something before the election," said Henry
Jennings, a senior analyst and portfolio manager at Marcustoday.
 
    Adding to the upbeat mood, AstraZeneca Plc's  AZN.L 
COVID-19 vaccine trial in the United States was expected to
resume as early as this week, a Reuters report said.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2HB2HS 
    Australia's financial sub-index  .AXFJ  rose about 1%,
boosted by gains in the "Big Four" banks.
    Australia and New Zealand Banking Group  ANZ.AX , National
Australia Bank  NAB.AX , Commonwealth Bank of Australia  CBA.AX 
and Westpac Banking Corp  WBC.AX  rose between 0.8% and 1.6%.
    "If we see U.S. futures doing well, our market will tend to
follow and the banks being such a big part of our index, that's
one of the places that people put their money," Jennings said.
    U.S. stock futures  EScv1  were up 0.71%.
    The energy sector  .AXEJ  rose 1.3% boosted by Woodside
Petroleum  WPL.AX  and Santos  STO.AX , which gained about 2%
each, ahead of their quarterly production numbers on Thursday.
    On the downside, healthcare stocks  .AXHJ  closed down 1.1%
and marked its worst session since Oct. 2. Industry behemoth CSL
 CSL.AX  slid 1.3%, while Mesoblast  MSB.AX  declined 4.4%.
    New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index  .NZ50  slipped
0.2% to finish the session at 12,432.61, with losses led by
Scales Corporation Ltd  SCL.NZ  and Goodman Property Trust
 GMT.NZ , which fell about 2.8% each.
    

 (Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren
Daniel)
 ((Nikhil.Subba@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
Nikhil.Subba.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
 
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