The Australian share market has ended the trading session higher, buoyed by gains across the board.
Financial and energy stocks pushed the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index to an intra day high of 5073 points, the highest level since January 7, Commsec market analyst Steven Daghlian said.
But the market lost some steam in the afternoon to close at 5043.6 points following the release of mixed data out of China.
“We’re still above 5,000 points, which I think is quite important from a psychological standpoint for the market,” Mr Daghlian said.
January was the worst start to a year since 2010, where the market lost 5.5 per cent of its value, he noted.
Two of the nation’s four biggest banks ended the trading session higher, with ANZ up 41 cents at $24.59 and National Australia Bank gaining 17 cents to $27.83.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia dropped 45 cents to $78.22 and Westpac fell 20 cents to $30.65.
Shares in investment bank Macquarie Group rose 46 cents to $72.04.
Origin Energy rose 11 cents to $4.21.
Bucking the trend was Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, which fell 16 cents to $38.97 and 10 cents to $15.25, respectively. Woodside Petroleum fell four cents to $27.91.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1620 AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 38.1 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 5043.6 points, according to preliminary figures.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 37.7 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 5,094.3 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was up 37 points at 5002 points, with 47,712 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.79 billion securities traded worth $4.46 billion.
