The Australian share market has closed slightly higher despite disappointing figures on retail sales and Australia’s widening current account deficit.
“I think we’re still to a large degree running off the fumes of yesterday’s PMI (purchasing managers’ index) data, especially out of China,” OptionsXpress market analyst Ben Le Brun said.
Official manufacturing data released over the weekend and figures from HSBC on Monday showed that in August China’s industrial sector expanded for the first month since April.
Mr Le Brun said economic data released in Australia on Tuesday had come in lower than expected.
“That might have knocked the stuffing out of what maybe was going to be more of a positive day,” he said.
Australia’s current account deficit widened to $9.35 billion in the June quarter, seasonally adjusted.
This exceeded the median market forecast of a $8.5 billion deficit for the three-month period.
Meanwhile, retail data showed sales increased 0.1 per cent in July – short of the expected 0.4 per cent rise.
On the domestic bourse on Tuesday, airline Virgin Australia firmed 1.5 cents to 42 cents, after the competition watchdog granted final conditional approval to its trans-Tasman alliance with Air New Zealand.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank strengthened six cents to $32.91, ANZ lifted five cents to $30.05, Westpac improved 12 cents to $31.94, but Commonwealth Bank eased 13 cents to $73.55.
In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton gained 20 cents to $35.82, and Rio Tinto jumped $1.83 to $61.05.
KEY FACTS
* At 1615 AEST on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 8.3 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 5,196.6 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was 10.9 points, or 0.21 per cent, higher at 5,188.9 points.
* The September share price index futures contract was up eight points at 5,192 points, with 20,578 contracts traded.
* At 1618 AEST, national turnover was 1.46 billion securities worth $3.7 billion.
