The Australian sharemarket notched its best day in six weeks after Wall Street rallied and the prospect of more rate cuts pushed banks and consumer-facing stocks higher in afternoon trade.

The S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.2 per cent or by 90.6 points to 7918.9, recording its biggest gain since February 6. The All Ordinaries also rose 1.2 per cent as nine of the bourse’s 11 sectors were in the green, led by technology.

Shares opened the session on positive ground as the US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell downplayed the risk of tariff-driven inflation after keeping the federal funds rate steady on Thursday morning (AEDT).

That prompted traders to ramp up bets for more rate cuts in US, sending the S&P 500 Index up 1.1 per cent as tech stocks surged. Bitcoin also topped $US85,000 amid renewed appetite for risk assets.

‘Short-lived’

A surprise fall in Australian employment last month by 52,800 jobs gave the ASX 200 an extra boost and strengthened the case for a possible rate cut by the Reserve Bank in May. Money markets are now pricing in a 78 per cent chance of a reduction of the cash rate to 3.85 per cent, up from 66 per cent.

Technology, bank and consumer stocks rallied on the ASX as investors piled back into sectors that had been sold off during the global rout in equities triggered by US President Trump’s trade war.

WiseTech added 2.5 per cent to $$84.89 and TechnologyOne added 3 per cent to $28.50, while among the big lenders Commonwealth Bank advanced 2.2 per cent to $145.93 and Macquarie 3.8 per cent to $201.79. National Australia Bank gained 1.4 per cent to $33.09 despite Morgan Stanley downgrading the lender to “equal weight”.

VanEck portfolio manager Cameron McCormack cautioned, however, that the market’s moves were “sentiment-driven” and gains could be short-lived. “If you look at year-to-date performance, a lot of it has been sentiment-driven. We are seeing uncertainty transposed onto equity markets and until we have more clarity [on tariffs], I feel we’re going to see more frequent bouts of movement both up and down.”

Property stocks, which can be sensitive to interest rate movements, posted notable gains: Goodman Group advanced 2.8 per cent to $31.59 and Scentre rose 2.5 per cent to $3.31.

Elsewhere, the iron ore miners plunged with the price of the steelmaking ingredient trading just above the crucial $US100 a tonne mark. Fortescue retreated 3.3 per cent to $15.94 despite Jarden Securities upgrading the stock to “neutral”. BHP shed 1.1 per cent to $39.13.

Stocks on the move

In corporate news, Nanosonics rallied 14 per cent to $4.98 after US regulators approved its tool designed to clean endoscopes used in hospitals and reduce infection risk.

Arafura Rare Earths rose 2.7 per cent to 19¢ after entering a five-year deal to supply 100 tonnes per year of neodymium-praseodymium oxide to Luxembourg-headquartered mining group Traxys.

Cleanaway Waste Management lifted 2 per cent to $2.60 after announcing it would buy Contract Resources for $377 million in a deal it said would deliver about $12 million in annual net cost synergies.

NRW Holdings rose 3.2 per cent to $2.88 after its subsidiary Primero Group bagged a 12-month contract worth $100 million for procurement and construction works at Rio Tinto’s Dampier seawater desalination project.

And TPG Telecom rallied 5.9 per cent to $4.82 after the competition watchdog gave the green light for the $5.25 billion sale of its fibre networks to Vocus Group.