ASX lifts four of the last five trading days

The local market traded higher on Thursday but was unable to close above 8500 points due to a pullback in the afternoon’s trading.

The Australian sharemarket rose on Thursday with strong gains from the gold miners and tech companies, but was unable to follow the lead coming out of Wall Street.

Australian sharemarket rose during the day’s trading, finishing higher for the fourth out of the past five days.

The benchmark ASX 200 index gained 12.30 points on Thursday, or 0.15 per cent, to finish the session at 8475 points. The broader All Ordinaries rose by 16 points, or 0.18 per cent, to close at 8744.50 points.

The Australian dollar 0.1 per cent to 64.33 US cents.

The Australian market rose during Thursday’s trading but was unable to stay above the 8500 point mark. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

On Wall Street overnight, all three major indexes hit record highs. The broadbased S & P 500 closed up 0.6 per cent, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3 per cent and the Dow Jones index lifted 0.7 per cent to close above 45,000 points for the first time.

The Aussie market grew off the back of the strong lead in from Wall Street, with six of the 11 sectors ending higher along with the S & P/ASX 200 Index. Information Technology was the best performing sector, gaining 1.13 per cent.

Capital.com senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said it was a mixed day on the market, with the ASX unable to follow the all time highs achieved on Wall Street.

“The strength in tech stocks, which was the bedrock of the milestone, was evident locally today,” Mr Rodda said.

“However, a drop in energy prices following the decline in oil prices going into the OPEC+ meeting, along with a down day for the materials detector, weighed on the market.”

Overall the gold miners led the way with Genesis Minerals rising 9.13 per cent, while Capricorn Metals and West African Resources rose 8.05 and 7.95 per cent respectively.

“The exception were the gold stocks, which were broadly higher, also benefiting from the dip in yields that came off the back of soft US data last night and was also responsible for the outperformance in tech companies,” Mr Rodda said.

6 of the 11 sectors were trading higher, with gold miners leading the way. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Leading the way for tech stocks in Australia was Afterpay’s parent company Block, which surged 5.71 per cent on the back of a strong bitcoin price. The financial payments company owns 8,211 BTC as of September 18.

Australian traders and crypto sector players are reacting to bitcoin’s $US100,000 milestone, with eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert saying it’s “no small feat and goes to show the global adoption of this asset we’ve seen in recent years”.

“Bitcoin’s performance, if there was still any doubt, solidifies that it deserves a place within a diversified investment portfolio,” he says.

The consumer discretionary sector also had a strong day up 1.08 per cent. Light and Wonder added 1.4 per cent to $154.71 and The Lottery Corporation closed 1 per cent higher to $5.20.

The big four banks were mixed in Thursday trade. CBA added 0.7 per cent to $157.99, NAB shed 0.3 per cent to $38.94, Westpac gained 0.5 per cent to $33.24 and ANZ closed flat, marginally lower, to $31.18.