Aussie shares soar on back of oil stocks
The Australian share market edged higher on Thursday as a rally in oil stocks offset losses elsewhere across the benchmark.
The S & P/ASX200 added just 0.1 per cent, or 9 points, to reach 7,058.4, while the All Ordinaries climbed a similar amount to 7,268.7.
The Australian dollar is currently buying US65.48, up 0.5 per cent.
Nine of 13 industry sectors finished in the red, with the benchmark weighed down by losses in staples and utilities stocks, which lost 0.8 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively.
Energy stocks were the best performing sector, advancing 1.3 per cent after a rebound in crude oil prices after rising expectations on Wall St that OPEC+ producers mulled deeper cuts.
After climbing more than 4 per cent, Brent crude steadied near $US81 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate is trading above $US76 a barrel.
Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, said Saudi Arabia and Russia would likely extend further voluntary cuts into early 2024. However, uncertainty persists regarding whether all OPEC+ countries will implement additional cuts to supply.
“A deeper group cut combined with the Saudis and Russians rolling over their voluntary cut would be more than enough to ensure that the surplus currently expected in the September quarter disappears,” Mr Patterson said in a note to clients.
On the benchmark, energy sector heavyweight Woodside added 0.4 per cent to $1.31, Santos rose 1.29 per cent to $7.08, and Ampol climbed 1.7 per cent to $34.12.
In company news, embattled Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin tendered her resignation on Monday after overseeing a nationwide outage on November 8.
According to a statement filed to the Singapore Exchange by the telco’s parent company Singtel, Rosmarin said her departure was “in the best interest of Optus moving forward.”
Optus has appointed current CFO Michael Venter to concurrently assume the role of CEO in the interim.
Shares for market operator the Australian Securities Exchange rose 1.2 per cent to $57.80 after it announced it had entered a deal with India’s Tata Consultancy Services to design and replace its trading, clearing and settlement system.
Karoon Energy vaulted 3.4 per cent to $2.12 after dropping more than 12 per cent last week. The oil and gas producer has recently commenced a capital raise worth $480 million for the acquisition of assets in the Gulf of Mexico.
Supply chain logistics firm Brambles announced the appointment of Xavier Garijo to head its Americas’ pallet business. Shares sank 1.2 per cent to $13.01.
WA based uranium producer Peninsula Energy plunged 31.7 per cent to 8.2. The miner is looking to raise a further $10 million for a planned $60 million capital raise to restart production at its Lance mine in the United States by the end of next year.
The release of minutes from the RBA’s November 7 meeting, where the central bank raised the cash rate to 4.35 per cent, to be released tomorrow, will be closely scrutinised by investors.
