A rally in technology and consumer discretionary stocks pushed the Australian sharemarket higher on Thursday after Wall Street notched its 56th record high this year.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index edged up 0.2 per cent, or 12.3 points, to 8474.9 at the closing bell, buoyed by six out of the 11 sectors. The All Ordinaries rose 0.2 per cent.

The information technology sector was the best performing, climbing 1.1 per cent. WiseTech added 1.9 per cent to $132.02, TechnologyOne jumped 2.8 per cent to $32.08 and Data#3 advanced 4.2 per cent to $7.74.

Consumer discretionary stocks were also in the green, led by Tabcorp rallying 4.6 per cent to 56¢. Breville increased 3.7 per cent to $35.93 and Premier Investments rose 3.6 per cent to $36.73.

IG analyst Tony Sycamore said consumer discretionary stocks were “boosted by the prospect of earlier RBA rate cuts following yesterday’s disappointing Australian Q3 GDP print”.

Amid the risk-on sentiment, bitcoin on Thursday afternoon jumped to $US100,000 for the first time. It rose after US President-elect Donald Trump named cryptocurrency enthusiast Paul Atkins as the incoming head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In commodities, iron ore futures in Singapore traded down 1 per cent to $US104 a tonne in afternoon trading, weighing on index heavyweight BHP, which fell 1.1 per cent to $40.59.

Brent crude traded around $US72 a barrel after sliding almost 2 per cent as traders looked ahead to an OPEC+ meeting on Thursday where it is expected the cartel will once again defer a move to revive output in an already well-supplied market.

That weighed on the energy sector, which was the worst performer on the ASX. Woodside Energy slid 1.1 per cent to $24.59 and Santos dropped 1 per cent to $6.67.

The big banks recorded a mixed performance. Commonwealth Bank firmed 0.7 per cent to $157.99, Westpac edged up 0.5 per cent to $33.24, National Australia Bank slid 0.5 per cent to $38.94 and ANZ was flat at $31.18.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, HMC Capital rallied 1.7 per cent to $12.40 after announcing it would acquire French renewable energy developer Neoen’s Victorian assets for $950 million.

And Rio Tinto told investors in a briefing late on Wednesday that it would increase copper volumes by 18 per cent next year and 40 per cent by 2030 to reduce its reliance on Australian iron ore. Chief executive Jakob Stausholm has also rejected fresh calls to unify the miner’s dual-company structure – and hinted he might go the other way with a share issuance on the Australian side. The shares rose 0.6 per cent to $120.78.