Australia shares up, propelled by healthy US jobs data

The share market in Australia started on a resurgent note on Monday powered by the healthy US job data that added cheer to the investors even though energy sector stocks were affected by the weakness in oil prices induced by oil exporters club OPEC’s decision not to cut production volumes.

The US non-farm payrolls rose 211,000 in November and doused the jitters over a possible US interest rate hike in December. Accordingly, the S&P/ASX 200 index rose 49.09 points, or 0.95 percent, to 5,200.70 by 12 noon, reports Reuters.

"There is no clear direction or any real conviction in being short or long," said Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG. He was referring to the uncertainty over the impact of the Fed's first rate hike in 8 years, with many investors taking an extra cautious approach.

Banks up

The stocks' surge graced all the big four banks, which jumped on Monday. Leading the pack was 1.6 percent rise in Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Notable upswing was seen in BHP Billiton stock that climbed 0.8 percent. Among the underperformers were stocks in the the oil & gas sector. Santos was down 7.1 percent and Woodside Petroleum lost 1.7 percent.

One noteworthy mention was the trading loss of McGrath Ltd, Australia’s first real estate agency that made a debut on the stock exchange recently. The stock was down 8.6 percent from its initial public offering price and traded at a low of $1.92 compared to the offer price of $2.10, reports Bloomberg.

Currency snapshot

As of 0647 AEDT on Monday, one Australian dollar buys:

-73.40 US cents from 73.42 US cents on Friday

-67.57 euro cents from 67.03 euro cents on Friday

US stocks

Meanwhile, the global markets seemed to exude optimism after the panic created by European Central Bank’s monetary stimulus policy. Buyers are looking ready now, noted a press release by Rivkin Global Investment. In the US, the S&P 500 regained 42 points on Friday after losing 53 points over the previous sessions. Now the index is back within 30 points to its post-August high.

The rally of US stocks from the steepest drop in two months powered by a positive jobs data was an indication that the economy is strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs, noted the Sydney Morning Herald report.

In an advisory, Rivkin Global Investment Director Oliver Gordon said both gold and silver are showing a significant intermediate low and traders will be getting the opportunity to set logical stop loss levels.

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