The Australian sharemarket surged 4% on Wednesday on the back a significant rally in the US markets overnight.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index added 203 points or 4% to 5289.10.
The broader All Ordinaries Index gained 185 points to end at 5,349.20.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March Share Price Index contract was 179 points higher at 5277 and a volume of 48168 contracts.
The big banks rose sharply with the Commonwealth Bank up nearly 6% or $2.24 to $39.81, ANZ rose $1.56 or 7.4% to $22.56, Westpac gained $1.47 or 6.5% to $23.695 and National Australia Bank rose $1.81 or 6.5% to $29.55.
Investors had a couple of interim results to sift through today, with the upmarket retailer Oroton Group delivering a record net profit of $10.4 million, propelling its share up by 5.2% to $3.20.
Queensland coal miner New Hope also a delivered an interim result, albeit a mixed one – the operating profit of $36.6 million was up by 9.4% but the net profit was down 8.6% after one-off asset sales. Its shares finished down 1 cent at $2.43.
The world’s largest zircon producer, Iluka announced it has completed its new shares sale of $248 million in order to fund the development of Jacinth-Ambrosia mineral sands project in South Australia’s Eucla Basin. Shares in Iluka added 20 cents or 5.4% to $3.86.
Metals were all up overnight – Copper up 2%, Nickel up 2.3% and Zinc 1.7%. Aluminium was up 1.6%. Zinifex rose 60 cents or 6.3% to $10.09.
Gold was trading at AU$1063.24 per ounce as at 4.40pm AEDT.
The Reserve Bank said the Australian dollar was buying 93.25 US cents.
