S&P/ASX 200 post biggest gains in more than two years

Australian shares staged their biggest single-day gains in over two years.

Australian shares staged their biggest single-day gains in more than two years.

Powered by a remarkable Wall Street surge, Australian shares staged their biggest single-day gains in over two years to add more than $30 billion in a single session.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 103.4 points, or 1.88 per cent, to finish at 5597.2.

It was the biggest daily percentage jump since November 10, 2016, when the index gained 3.34 per cent.

The Australian share market was buoyant for most of the trading day after the bourse got a jump-start from an historic Wall Street session. The Australian index is still down 2.7 per cent on the month, however.

The broader All Ordinaries was up by 102.5 points, or 1.84 per cent, to close at 5562.1.

The mining and energy sectors continued a strong early performance, moving ahead by more than two per cent on the back of surging oil prices and gains for Chinese copper.

Origin Energy gained 4.4 per cent to $6.40, with Viva Energy up 3.4 per cent to $1.80, and Beach Energy up 1.1 per cent to $1.33.

Woodside Petroleum added 4.2 per cent to $31.06, while Santos, Oil Search, Caltex, Whitehaven Coal and Yancoal each rose. Mining giant BHP lifted 2 per cent to $34.15 and Rio Tinto was 0.6 per cent higher at $77.66.

Heavyweight financial stocks had retraced their steps by noon but the sector was still ahead, with Commonwealth Bank leading the charge for the big four, up 2.5 per cent to $70.33. National Australia Bank was up 1.9 per cent at $23.34.

Other top performers on Thursday included AusDrill, which gain 7.4 per cent, infant formula producer Bellamy’s, up 6.5 per cent to $7.25, and Afterpay, up 6.1 per cent to $12.42.

Wesfarmers was trading 2.1 per cent higher at $32.25.

Earlier, the Dow Jones jumped more than 1,000 points for the first time on, leading a Wall Street rebound on strong US retail reports.

The Aussie edged lower, buying 70.55 US cents, down from 70.68 US cents on Wednesday.

-AAP