The Australian share market has closed higher despite weak Chinese economic data weighing on positive sentiment from Wall Street.
Wall Street rallied to its best close for the year so far on Friday as investors embraced the European Central Bank’s stimulus measures and higher oil prices drove up energy shares.
Local shares rose on the strong US lead but soft industrial and retail sales figures from China did limit gains, CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner said.
“We began the week trading with two conflicting influences,” he said.
“The US market broke to new higher ground for the year after a week of nervousness, giving investors here a positive lead.
“But the market wasn’t prepared to go beyond what we opened at this morning because of the softer data from China on Saturday.”
Chinese industrial production rose 5.4 per cent during the first two months of the year; its slowest rate since the global financial crisis.
The country’s retail sales figures for January and February was also soft, rising 10.2 per cent compared to 11.1 per cent in December.
Among the nation’s top four banks, Commonwealth Bank was up 49 cents to $76.86, ANZ gained 33 cents to $25.75, National Australia Bank rose 39 cents to $28.31, and Westpac added 14 cents to $32.88.
Mining giant BHP Billiton was up 13 cents to $17.74, while Rio Tinto was down 10 cents to $44.47 and Fortescue Metals was down seven cents to $2.58.
Energy players rose on the back of higher oil prices with Santos up 13 cents to $3.99, Woodside Petroleum added one cent to $26.77 and Oil Search was also up one cent to $7.20.
Telstra shares lifted 12 cents to $5.28 after announcing it has abandoned plans for a $US1 billion ($A1.33 billion) expansion into the Philippines but did alert the market that it will spend up on acquisitions or joint ventures in Asia.
Gold stocks suffered the heaviest losses on Monday with Newcrest Mining down 63 cents, or 3.6 per cent, at $16.87, while Evolution Mining shed 12.5 cents, or 7.42 per cent, to $1.56.
KEY FACTS:
* At the close on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 19.1 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 5,185.5 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 17.6 points, or 0.34 per cent, at 5,242.4 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was down one point at 5,179 points with 85,380 contracts traded.
* The price of gold in Sydney at 1700 AEDT was $US1,256.30 per fine ounce, down $US12.97 on Friday’s price of $US1,269.27.
* National turnover was 2.4 billion securities traded, worth $5.0 billion.
