Staff writers
Updated ,first published
Australia’s sharemarket bucked the trend of rising global markets to close lower on Thursday as banking and mining stocks weighed on the bourse and energy giant Viva entered a trading halt after a debilitating fire broke out at its Geelong refinery.
The S&P/ASX 200 edged down 23.7 points, falling 0.26 per cent, to close at 8955. It ended the day with six of 11 sectors in positive territory, led by tech stocks which rallied by 7.4 per cent.
Labour force data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the country’s jobless rate held steady at 4.3 per cent in March despite the effects of rising prices from the US-Iran war on the economy.
The Australian dollar rose to the highest level since June 2022, trading around US71.70¢ amid broad weakness in the greenback.
Global equities climbed to a new all-time high as investors piled back into stocks on signs that the US and Iran may extend a ceasefire, helping markets unwind war-driven risk premiums. The MSCI All Country World Index – the broadest measure of global shares – rose as much as 0.3 per cent to a record, and headed for a 10th day of gains.
On the Australian exchange, Viva Energy entered a trading halt after a fire broke out late Wednesday night at its refinery. The plant is one of only two in Australia and can process up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day. Fellow refiner Ampol surged early but pared gains to close just 01.5 per cent higher while Woodside Energy fell 1.06 per cent and Santos retreated 1.03 per cent.
Financial stocks lost ground with all big four banks in negative territory. The Commonwealth Bank shed 2.77 per cent, Westpac was down 1.65 per cent, National Australia Bank fell 2.49 per cent and ANZ lost 1.28 per cent.
Mining stocks were mixed. Fortescue closed 1.01 per cent higher, but fellow iron ore heavyweights BHP (down 0.34 per cent) and Rio Tinto (down 0.7 per cent) lost ground. Local gold miners slumped, with Northern Star losing 1.58 per cent and Evolution Mining 4.15 per cent.
Technology firm WiseTech surged 12.36 per cent, Xero rose 9 per cent and TechnologyOne 6.14 per cent. Their gains mirror similar moves in America where companies hurt earlier in the year by worries about artificial-intelligence technology rose to recover more of their losses for 2026.
In the US, the S&P 500 rose 0.8 per cent and eclipsed its prior all-time high set in January.
Much of the rally has been due to expectations for calming tensions in the war and a resumption of the full flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. Hopes remained high as regional officials told The Associated Press that the United States and Iran had an “in principle agreement” to extend a ceasefire to allow for more diplomacy.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.1 per cent to settle at $US94.93. That’s still well above the roughly $US70 price from before the war, though it’s down from $US119 at peak when worries about the fighting were at their heights.
But if US-Iran talks happen and are successful, the war could end up being just a temporary setback for the global economy instead of a new normal of very high oil prices and inflation. And that in turn could allow investors to return their attention to what matters most for stock prices: money.
With stock prices overall back to where they were in January, and with analysts’ expectations for upcoming profits from big US companies only rising since then, optimists say many stocks look less expensive than they did a few months ago.
“Today, we see compelling opportunity potential” to shift into areas of the market that look like better buys than earlier this year, such as technology stocks, said Mason Mendez, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
With AP, Bloomberg
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