The Australian sharemarket climbed on Monday, extending its financial year gain as progress in US trade negotiations boosted investor sentiment.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 28.1 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 8542.3, with seven out of the 11 sectors gaining. Health and technology led the advance.

Investors tracked a rally on Wall Street that pushed the S&P 500 to a fresh record of 6170 on Friday and Nvidia towards $US4 trillion ($6.1 trillion) in market capitalisation. Oil and gold were lower amid the increased risk-on environment.

“It’s been a very subdued end of month and end of quarter – usually we expect to see some fireworks at this point, but it hasn’t really delivered,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore told The Australian Financial Review.

‘Pleasantly surprised’

“But in the context of the rally we’ve seen since April lows, it’s probably a case of portfolio managers being pleasantly surprised by how well the ASX has performed in the run home, and they’re sitting happy, meaning there wasn’t a need to find that extra spark.”

US President Donald Trump told the media over the weekend that he did not think he needed to extend the July 9 tariff deadline for countries negotiating with the US.

Among the countries in talks, India is reported to have extended its stay in Washington to iron out a deal, Canada has withdrawn its digital services tax on technology companies to restart negotiations, and Taiwan has said it made “constructive progress”.

On the ASX, investors have piled into health stocks, with CSL up 2.2 per cent to $239.48, Pro Medicus 1.6 per cent to $285.08, and Sigma Healthcare 1.4 per cent to $2.99.

The tech sector was also well bid, with NextDC finishing up 2.2 per cent to $14.50 while financials edged higher. Macquarie Group climbed 3.9 per cent to $228.73. The big four banks were more mixed with Commonwealth Bank dipping 0.3 per cent to $184.75.

Investors took profits from the big iron ore producers on the last day of the financial year, with Rio Tinto down 1.7 per cent to $107.13, Fortescue down 1.2 per cent to $15.28, and BHP falling 2.1 per cent to $36.75.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, James Hardie rose 7.1 per cent to $41.70 after shareholders in US outdoor decking company Azek approved a $14 billion buyout, which will see James Hardie shift its primary listing to New York.

Star Entertainment tanked 6.9 per cent to 14¢ after its Hong Kong investors threatened to walk away from a deal for Brisbane’s new Queen’s Wharf casino and hotel complex.

DroneShield fell 4.2 per cent to $2.28 after earlier rallying on news it had won a $9.7 million Latin American defence contract. That’s after last week’s 33 per cent rally from announcing a major European deal.

NIB jumped 9.4 per cent to $7.08 after UBS upgraded the private health insurer to “buy” from “neutral” and set a short-term share price target of $7.85, which implies an upside of more than 20 per cent.

Biotech company Tetratherix jumped 13 per cent in the first few minutes of its debut on the Australian sharemarket, in what is the latest of a handful of initial public offerings this month. It closed at $3.02, up 4.9 per cent.

And Superloop rose 1 per cent to $3.01 after the broadband provider said it expected underlying earnings to reach $91 million for the full year, beating its earlier guidance of $83 million to $88 million.

With Bloomberg

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