ASX200 books small Wednesday gain on Wall St rebound

The Australian sharemarket inched higher on Wednesday on the back of a Wall St rebound, even as heavyweight mining and energy stocks tumbled.

The benchmark ASX200 edged up 10.5 points, or 0.13 per cent, to close at 8187.4, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 13.1 points, or 0.16 per cent, to settle at 8456.8.

The All Technology index jumped 1.81 per cent to 3545.6.

The lift was broad based, with eight of 11 industry sectors ending in the green, led by the telecommunication and IT sectors, which advanced 1.4 per cent and 1.41 per cent, respectively.

Wisetech Global gained 1.5 per cent to $134.10 a share, Appen Limited added 3.31 per cent to $2.03 and Infomedia Limited climbed 5.05 per cent to $1.56.

“Wall St rebounded (overnight Tuesday) and that has been instrumental in IT stocks,” IG markets analyst Tony Sycamore said.

“Some of those are going crazy today and that has flowed through.”

The Dow Jones gained 126 points, or 0.3 per cent, to close at 42,080, while the S and P 500 index added 0.97 per cent to 5751 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 1.45 per cent to 18,182.

“That’s helping the broader market,” Mr Sycamore said.

“We’re seeing financials higher … so once again there’s money coming out of resources and coming into the financials.

“And consumer facing stocks are doing okay as well and that’s probably to do with the fact the RBNZ cut rates by 50 basis points today and that also puts a little bit of pressure on the RBA to start thinking about rate cuts.”

Wesfarmers climbed 0.87 per cent to $69.55 and Super Retail Group rose 1.16 per cent to $18.30.

It was a volatile day of trading, with the bourse bouncing 40 points higher in morning trade before fading throughout the day.

The heavyweight materials and energy sectors weighed on the market, with the big miners extending Tuesday’s sell off and oil and gas firms tumbling on a sharp fall in oil prices.

BHP slid 1.16 per cent to $43.28, Rio Tinto retreated 2.27 per cent to $118.24 and Fortescue lost 1.56 per cent to $18.97.

Mineral Resources tumbled 6.42 per cent to $47.94, making it the worst performer on the benchmark.

Brent crude fell 4.6 per cent to hit $US77.18 a barrel overnight Tuesday on the prospect of a possible ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, continuing fallout from China’s muted stimulus announcement and a shock rise in US inventories reported by the American Petroleum Institute.

“We saw a surge in 10.9 million barrels for the week ending October 4,” Mr Sycamore said.

“So it’s always a one-week lag, but it was an absolutely enormous build, the biggest since November 2023 and the market was looking for a slight build, 1.95 million barrels.

“What it suggests is we just don’t have the demand there.”

Woodside Energy slumped 2.96 per cent to $25.56, Santos fell 1.79 per cent to $7.12 and Beach Energy declined 3.53 per cent to $1.23.

In corporate news, energy infrastructure business APA Group advanced 2.57 per cent to $7.59 after the Australian Energy Regulator said the company’s South West Queensland Pipeline should not be subject to full price regulation and the existing light regulation regime should remain in place.

“APA welcomes the AER’s draft decision to maintain the current form of regulation for the SWQP,” APA CEO Adam Watson said.

“This decision, if confirmed, creates confidence to make the necessary investment in our East Coast Gas Grid to support energy security for our customers and consumers.”

The top gainer on the ASX200 was buy now, pay later company Zip Co, leaping 6.25 per cent to $2.89.

The Aussie dollar gained 0.02 per cent to buy US67.4c at the closing bell.