The Australian share market has closed more than one per cent higher as investors speculated that Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the US election had improved.
Mrs Clinton’s chances of beating Republican candidate Donald Trump in the November 8 poll look better now that the FBI has closed its latest investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails and concluded that no charges are warranted.
“It’s the FBI to the rescue, I think,” CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner said.
“The markets have taken the view that Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the election are not certain, but are significantly improved, and that’s what’s really driven the market today.”
A victory for Donald Trump in this week’s long-awaited US presidential election is likely to spark a sell-off in share markets around the world and have potentially serious implications for trade-focused economies such as Australia’s.
The local bourse was led higher by the major banks. Westpac gained 79 cents, or 2.7 per cent, to $30.50 after reporting a flat full-year cash profit of $7.822 billion, which was broadly in line with expectations.
Commonwealth Bank lifted $1.54, or 2.2 per cent, to $72.53, National Australia Bank rose 39 cents or 1.5 per cent to $26.27, and ANZ added nine cents – a 0.3 per cent gain – to $27.03.
In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton improved 43 cents to $22.70, Rio Tinto ascended 61 cents to $53.92, and Fortescue Metals jumped 18 cents to $5.47.
Gold miner Northern Star dropped 18 cents to $4.26. Northern Star plans to lift production at its Jundee mine in Western Australia after exploration results and a trial of the processing plant showed the potential for increased capacity.
Engineering and maintenance firm UGL dipped three cents to $3.15. Most of UGL’s directors are recommending the engineering group’s shareholders accept Spanish-controlled construction giant CIMIC’s $524 million takeover bid.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1625 AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 70 points, or 1.35 per cent, at 5,250.8 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 67.8 points, or 1.29 per cent, at 5,330.9 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was up 88 points at 5,241 points, with 36,961 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.9 billion securities traded, worth $4.19 billion.
