(RTTNews) - The Australian market gained more than 1.75% and ended in positive territory on Monday morning led by banking stocks and positive economic data related to home loans. Positive closing in the U.S on Wall Street despite weaker than expected economic data lifted hopes of sustaining recovery also lifted market sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index rose 80.90 points, or 1.76% to close at 4,675, while the All-Ordinaries Index ended at 4,686, representing a gain of 82.10 points, or 1.78%.

On the economic front, a report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that the number of loans for owner-occupied housing jumped a seasonally adjusted 5.1% in September to 65,505, compared to the previous month. That was higher than analyst expectations for a 3.0% increase following the revised 1.9% monthly decline in August. The report further noted that the value of owner-occupied home loans was up a seasonally adjusted 6.7% to A$17.593 billion after the revised 2.7% fall in the previous month. In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions increased 4.8%.

In a separate report, the Australia New Zealand Banking Group said that total job advertisements in the country dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.7% on month in October, coming in at 133,709 ads. On an annual basis, ads were down 42.3%. Total ads were up 4.4% in September.

Light sweet crude oil futures for December delivery ended at $78.42 a barrel in electronic trading, up $0.99 per barrel from previous close at $77.43 a barrel in New York on Friday.

The biggest gainer in today’s trading session was AXA Asia Pacific, the Australian unit of French insurance company AXA SA, which rejected the $10 billion unsolicited bid from parent company AXA SA and AMP Ltd, wherein the parent company would sell its 54% stake in the unit and later buy back the Asian units. Following the rejection of the offer, the shares of AXA Asia Pacific soared up 32.56%.

Banking stocks led the gains after Commonwealth Bank, the biggest lender in the country, reported a 27% rise in earnings for the first quarter led by better-than-expected performance in the wealth division. The stock surged up 4.50%. Among other banks, National Australia Bank gained 2.96% and ANZ Bank advanced 1.16%. Investment banking company Macquarie Group edged up 0.48%. However, Westpac Banking Corp. bucked the trend and ended in negative territory with a loss of 1.02%.

Retail stocks gained on expectation of increase in demand. David Jones gained 3.84%, Harvey Norman rose 4.14%, JB Hi-Fi advanced 3.33%, Wesfarmers added 1.02% and Woolworths climbed 1.54%.

Mining and metal stocks also ended in positive territory. BHP Billiton gained 0.56%, Rio Tinto advanced 1.15%, Fortescue Metals rose 2.09%, Gindalbie Metals surged up 7.02%, Iluka Resources added 0.88%, Mincor Resources gained 2.93% and Oz Minerals climbed up 3.40%.

Oil stocks also ended in positive territory. Woodside Petroleum gained 1.25%, Santos Ltd rose 2.41%, Oil Search added 0.84% and Origin Energy advanced 0.81%.

Mixed trading was witnessed among gold stocks. While Lihir Gold gained 3.02% and Newcrest Mining rose 3.58%, Sino Gold Mining bucked the trend and ended in negative territory with a loss of 1.37%.

Property related stocks also ended mixed. While GPT Group advanced 1.68% and Westfield Group rose 1.06%, Stockland slipped 0.27% and Mirvac Group lost 0.70%.

In the U.S., stocks saw only slim moves to close out the week on Friday, as subdued reaction to monthly employment figures kept the major averages near the unchanged mark. The major averages were able to recover from a pullback at the opening bell and managed to close modestly higher. The Dow closed up 17.46 points or 0.2% at 10,023, the Nasdaq advanced 7.12 points or 0.3% to 2,112 and the S&P 500 rose 2.67 points or 0.3% to 1,069.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Eurozone, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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