ASX edges higher after strong rebounds in major global markets

The Australian sharemarket edged higher on Tuesday, as global markets recovered from the shock of the GameStop short-selling saga.

The Australian sharemarket edged higher on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Christian Gilles

Australian shares followed strong rebounds in global markets on Tuesday after last week’s losses sparked by the GameStop short-selling bubble.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 gained 99.6 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 6762.6, with nine of index’s sectors finishing in positive territory.

The broader All Ordinaries index jumped 104.7 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 7027.5.

the Australian dollar was fetching 76.2 US cents and gold was buying $US1854.9 an ounce in afternoon trade.

Westpac market analyst Robert Rennie said the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to extend its bond buying regime by an additional $100bn was a “dovish” surprise for foreign exchange markets, suggesting the Australian dollar was underperforming.

The RBA on Tuesday maintained the official interest rate but extended its bond buying regime. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

“With today’s dovish outcome plus continued weakness across the metals complex … we see some further underperformance in the Australian dollar near term – at least a test of the 0.7600 level should be seen near term,” Mr Rennie said in a note.

Debt buyer Credit Corp was the best performing stock of the day, rising 8.8 per cent $32.06 per share with investors rallying behind the company’s interim results, which posted a 10 per cent rise in its net profit after tax to $42.3m.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield incurred the biggest share price slump of Tuesday’s trading day, falling 7.1 per cent to $5.13 each.

Blackmores reversed some its gains from the previous day with its listed stock decreasing 3.8 per cent to $78.89 per share.

Debt buyer Credit Corp was the best performing stock of the day. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Christian Gilles

Major banks all finished higher, with Commonwealth Bank jumping 2.6 per cent to $86.59 per share, while Westpac edged 1 per cent higher to $21.42 per share.

Shares in ANZ rose 1.2 per cent to $24.35 per share and stock in NAB increased 1.8 per cent to $24.24 per share.

Mining giant Rio Tinto ended the session up 3.4 per cent to $115.03 per share and rival BHP finished 2.2 per cent to $45.10 per share.

Stock in travel company Webjet hiked 7.5 per cent to $5.04 per share, while investors got behind shares in buy-now-pay-later company Afterpay, which saw its share price surge 7.9 per cent to $146.62 each.

Betting group Tabcorp saw its share price close 8.8 per cent higher to $4.46 each.

Wesfarmers finished 0.1 per cent lower to $55.15 per share, while Woolworths saw its share price end the trading session down 0.1 per cent to $41 each.

Originally published as ASX edges higher after strong rebounds in major global markets