The Australian sharemarket notched its fifth consecutive day of gains on Wednesday as investors continued to pile back into stocks that had been punished during the recent sell-off.

The S&P/ASX 200 lifted 0.7 per cent, or by 56.5 points, to 7999 at the market close, slipping back below the 8000 point mark in the afternoon session. The All Ordinaries rose 0.7 per cent.

It was the longest stretch of gains for the local bourse since the start of the year as the sharemarket tracked a rebound on Wall Street.

Both the ASX 200 and the technology-dominated US benchmark S&P 500 fell into correction territory earlier this month amid fears that President Donald Trump’s erratic trade agenda will push the US into a recession.

Moomoo market strategist Jessica Amir said she expected the ASX 200’s relief rally to continue before warning that the next round of US tariff announcements on April 2 could halt its progress.

“The pullback [earlier this month] was like ripping off a Band-Aid, and we saw mass fear,” she said. “Now markets are oversold, and investors are buying the dip.

“But April 2 will be crunch time. If we get more tariffs than the market is expecting, we could see a return to safe havens like gold and a pivot into typically defensive sectors,” she said.

Technology stocks extended gains on Wednesday with TechnologyOne advancing 2.2 per cent to $29.31. WiseTech rose 0.3 per cent to $85.40 – its highest price in almost three weeks.

Banks and consumer stocks also climbed after February’s consumer price index showed a cooling in inflation, boosting the case for more rate cuts in Australia.

Index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank gained 1.1 per cent to $150.23, while ANZ lifted 3 per cent to $29.44. In the consumer staples sector, supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles also climbed, with the shares up 1.7 per cent to $29.39 and 1.5 per cent to $19.32, respectively.

In commodities, Brent crude oil traded at $US73.20 – its highest level this month – after an industry report signalled a major contraction in US crude stockpiles. That helped lift Santos 1.5 per cent to $6.65.

The index’s biggest gainer was Ramelius Resources, which jumped 6.05 per cent after Macquarie upgraded the stock to outperform following its $2.4 billion deal to buy Spartan Resources.

Paladin Energy, meanwhile, lost 11.6 per cent, to $5.65 after the company retracted its 2025 production guidance because of unseasonably heavy rainfall at its Namibian Langer Heinrich mine.

Stocks in focus

In other corporate news, Tuas has swung into the black, posting an interim profit of $3 million in the first half with revenues bolstered by subscriber growth. The update failed to impress investors with the shares sinking 7.5 per cent to $5.80.

Vulcan Energy leapt 12.8 per cent to $5.36 after the European Commission gave its Lionheart lithium project “strategic project” status, marking it as key to securing critical minerals supply, and opening the door to development funding.

Sovereign Metals plummeted 16.4 per cent to 82¢ as it gears up to issue around 47 million new ordinary shares to raise $40 million.

And Clinuvel edged up 2.9 per cent to $12.04 after reporting positive preliminary results from a study of its drug afamelanotide as a treatment for arterial ischaemic stroke. It noted functional improvement in eight of nine patients by day 42 of the trial.