ASX rises on energy; Paladin and Qantas soar; City Chic, Perpetual dive

ASX storms to best finish in two weeks as real estate stocks jump. Paladin leads uranium gains, City Chic hammered on result, Qantas' 'surprise' for investors and Woolworths tumbles.

Investors chewing on outlook, inflation commentary amid a busy earnings season as global macroeconomic factors remain front of mind. Picture: Seb Haggett

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Thursday, August 25. The Australian sharemarket posts its biggest single-day gain in two weeks as real estate and energy lead broad gains.

The S&P/ASX 200 index closed up by 0.7 per cent to 7048.10, with all sectors except for utilities and consumer staples in the red.

This came after Wall Street ended a three-day losing streak as the Dow Jones index gained 0.2 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent and the Nasdaq edged up 0.4 per cent.

US 10-year bond yields increased to near 3.11 per cent and the US 2-year yields also lifted to near 3.40 per cent

Oil prices are higher with global benchmark Brent crude up 1 per cent to $US101.22 per barrel and the US Nymex crude gaining 1.2 per cent to $US94.89 per barrel.

Iron ore futures rose 0.2 per cent to $US105.15 per tonne.

The Aussie dollar was near US69.69c at the local close.