Australian shares are one per cent higher as the military overthrow of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi boosts the price of crude oil and shares in energy companies.
The strong gains mark another day of market volatility, with shares shifting between big losses and big gains each day this week.
CommSec market analyst Juliette Saly said energy companies were the standout performers on Thursday as crude oil prices stayed above $US100 a barrel, following Mr Morsi’s detention.
“That’s exactly why we saw the oil price hit that 14-month high overnight, but also due to the fact we saw an increase in US stockpiles,” she said.
“Pretty much every sector was higher today, we did see a little bit of a switch out of info-tech, but generally you can put a lot of the good work down to the great gains we saw coming through from the energy sector.”
Woodside Petroleum was up $1.02, or 2.95 per cent, at $35.64, Oil Search gained 12 cents to $7.88 and Santos was also up 12 cents at $12.97.
The miners rose following gains in iron ore prices on Wednesday night, which lifted to $US120 a tonne.
Heavyweight BHP Billiton gained 17 cents to $31.22, Rio Tinto improved 67 cents to $52.17 and Fortescue was 21 cents higher at $3.30.
Commonwealth Bank lost six cents to $68.47, while its rivals gained between 0.5 per cent and 1.15 per cent.
KEY FACTS
* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index gained 50.6 points, or 1.07 per cent, to 4,794.7.
* The broader All Ordinaries index added 53.2 points, or 1.13 per cent, to 4,781.
* On the ASX 24, the September share price index futures contract was 47 points higher at 4,754 with 17,124 contracts traded.
* The spot price of gold in Sydney finished at $US1,252.50, up $US6.60 from Wednesday’s close at $US1,245.90.
* National turnover was 1.43 billion securities worth $3.14 billion.
