Australian shares have outperformed Wall Street as the first positive Chinese manufacturing data in four months boosted the big banks and miners.
RBS Morgans senior private client adviser Bill Chatterton said China’s upbeat purchasing managers’ index reading for August helped Australian shares gain almost one per cent, against a smaller 0.44 per cent gain for the American Dow Jones Industrial Average overnight.
“You go back three or four months and there were some concerns that China wasn’t going to grow,” he said.
“Irrespective of commentary from some of the political areas … saying the mining boom is dead, it’s not.”
Resources stocks benefited from the news, with Rio Tinto adding 89 cents, or 1.5 per cent, to $59.93.
BHP Billiton gained 27 cents to $35.64 as Fortescue Metals put on 19 cents to $4.45.
Most other sectors of the market were higher, overcoming Thursday’s losses.
The big four banks continued to perform well following a strong week of profit results, with ANZ adding 14 cents to $29.64, Commonwealth Bank gaining 79 cents to $72.05, NAB putting on 12 cents to $32.46 and Westpac jumping 47 cents to $31.47.
Property and development companies also climbed, as several of the larger companies released their full year earnings reports.
Lend Lease shares were up 11 cents to $9.13 after its full year profit rose by 10 per cent.
Mirvac gained 2.5 cents to $1.67, despite a 66 per cent fall in full year profit based on a $273 million residential writedown on luxury apartments announced in February.
Casino operator Crown gained 76 cents to $14.34, despite a full year profit fall of more than 20 per cent, as it flagged future strong earnings from its Macau operations.
KEY FACTS
* At 1615 AEST on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 47.7 points, or 0.94 per cent, at 5,123.4 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 48.5 points, or 0.96 per cent, at 5,115.2 points.
* The September share price index futures contract was 63 points higher at 5,102 points, with 24,077 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.8 billion securities worth $4.5 billion.
