Australian sharemarket bounces on border plan, ‘less chaotic’ US debate

A ‘less chaotic’ US Presidential debate and National Cabinet’s agreement to reopen almost all state borders by Christmas helped the ASX on Friday.

The Australian sharemarket bounced back from an intraday fall after the final US presidential debate and after National Cabinet agreed on a plan to open domestic borders by Christmas, with the exception of Western Australia.

The S&P/ASX200 finished 0.2 per cent firmer at 6167 while the All Ordinaries Index added the same amount to 6374.

CommSec analyst James Tao said the debate was less chaotic than the first.

“There was actually some policy discussed between the candidates,” Mr Tao said.

The National Cabinet announcement that followed also played a role in lifting the market.

“It wasn’t a massive bounce. It was a pretty quiet session with (trading) volumes relatively light,” Mr Tao said.

He said investors were “not really convicted” amid the uncertainty of the US election outcome and as COVID-19 cases surged in the northern hemisphere.

Qantas rose 2.7 per cent to $4.55 after holding its annual general meeting, confirming the airline had been hammered by border closures, but chief executive Alan Joyce said it was looking for safe routes to Japan, parts of South East Asia and the South Pacific.

Qantas is chasing Asian travel routes while Webjet says the leisure sector ‘will come out of the gates strongly’ when border restrictions ease. Picture: AAP/Bianca De Marchi

National Australia Bank gained 0.62 per cent to $19.53 despite reporting a $642 million additional hit to its second half earnings, largely blamed on customer-related remediation costs.

ANZ put on 1.44 per cent to $19.78, Commonwealth Bank lifted 0.82 per cent to $69.90 and Westpac rose 0.97 per cent to $18.78.

BlueScope Steel leapt 10.86 per cent to $15.92 after flagging at its AGM a substantial first half profit increase due to strong demand for its products and better steel prices.

Online travel company Webjet jumped 3.55 per cent to $4.08 after talking about pent-up travel demand at its AGM, saying the leisure sector “will come out of the gates strongly”.

Buy-now-pay-later market leader Afterpay added 1.06 per cent to $102.13 — an all-time high for the stock.

Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources plummeted a whopping 48.28 per cent to $5.12 after its mining royalty spin-off Deterra Royalties made its ASX debut, opening at $4.87 but closing at $4.60.

Rio Tinto weakened 0.85 per cent to $95.40 and BHP dropped 1.32 per cent to $36.

Bunnings owner Wesfarmers inched 0.4 per cent lower to $46.92 while Telstra gave up 0.73 per cent to $2.73.

The Aussie dollar was fetching 71.10 US cents, 54.43 British pence and 60.22 Euro cents in afternoon trade.