Australian sharemarket on five-day winning streak, boosted by iron ore strength

Higher iron ore prices helped the Australian sharemarket rack up its fifth straight day of gains.

The Australian sharemarket has gained ground for the fifth straight day as stronger iron ore prices boosted miners of the steelmaking metal.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed 0.62 per cent firmer at 6675 while the All Ordinaries Index rose 0.64 per cent to 6909.

The bourse spiked in early trade, mainly due to a very strong lead from Wall Street, with some US indices hitting record highs as weaker than anticipated jobs data revived hopes of economic stimulus sooner rather than later.

Axi chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said the deteriorating labour market conditions in the US could add extra pressure to both Democrats and Republicans to deal with a new package before year-end.

“After all, what member of Congress want to be called the ‘Grinch that stole Christmas’ even though this holiday season is bound to be Christmas-lite,” Mr Innes said.

On the local market, after the iron ore price surged to March 2013 highs, Rio Tinto put on 2.46 per cent to $115.98, BHP advanced 2.15 per cent to $42.39 and Champion Iron leapt 7.6 per cent to $5.24.

China remains Australia’s biggest iron ore customer despite trade tensions between the nations. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

Share price records were broken by Fortescue, up 3.79 per cent to $21.39, and Mineral Resources, up 0.55 per cent to $34.75.

CommSec analyst James Tao said the price of the commodity soared about 11 per cent in the past week.

“There is still very strong demand coming through from China (as) Chinese stockpiles continue to shrink,” he said.

Another strong performer was Metcash, which owns supermarket chain IGA and recently acquired a majority stake in hardware retailer Total Tools.

The wholesale distribution group booked a far better than expected underlying net profit of $129 million for the six months to October 31 — up 43 per cent compared with the same period last year — sending its shares rocketing 10.25 per cent to $3.55.

Metcash already owned Mitre 10 before the Total Tools acquisition.

Online retailer Kogan was slugged $350,000 by the Federal Court for offering consumers “discounts” on products that had price increases just before the promotion in mid-2018.

But investors were pleased because the company said it had made a provision of $700,000 for the penalty and its shares closed 3.8 per cent higher at $18.04.

The big four banks were largely higher, with ANZ inching 0.17 per cent higher to $23.34, Commonwealth Bank lifting 0.7 per cent to $80.74 and National Australia Bank appreciating 0.52 per cent to $23.25. Westpac was steady at $20.27.

In the health sector, hearing aid pioneer Cochlear gave up 3.17 per cent to $208 while biotech giant CSL — the biggest company on the ASX — added 0.4 per cent to $295.

The Aussie dollar was buying 74.29 US cents, 55.34 British pence and 61.22 Euro cents in afternoon trade.

Originally published as Australian sharemarket on five-day winning streak, boosted by iron ore strength