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AMP drops 13.4% after profit drop
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U.S retail sales improve sentiment
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Newcrest rebuffs $16.9 bln takeover offer
(Updates to close)
By Rishav Chatterjee
Feb 16 (Reuters) - Australian shares ended higher on
Thursday, led by gains in technology shares, as investors bet
against inflationary pressures and rising interest rates post
better-than-expected U.S. retail sales data.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.8% to close at 7,410.3 points. The benchmark jumped 1.1% on Wednesday. U.S. retail sales rebounded sharply in January after two straight monthly declines, on the back of purchases of motor vehicles and other goods, pointing to the economy's continued resilience despite higher borrowing costs. "I am thinking inflation is definitely going to be headed down and I base that on the lower oil price, which is a tax on everything," said Brad Smoling, Managing director at Smoling Stockbroking. In Australia, technology stocks jumped 2.7% while healthcare companies and real estate stocks added 1.0% and 2.2%, respectively.
Shares in Orora and Sonic Healthcare topped gains on the ASX200 after posting upbeat results.
National Australia Bank on Thursday posted a 19% jump in first-quarter cash profit helped by rising interest rates. The bank's shares closed up 0.7%, but the broader financials sub-index marginally declined.
Leading losses on the main index was wealth manager AMP after it posted a fall of around 34% in annual underlying profit. Shares closed down 13.4%. Miners jumped 0.2% on the back of a rebound in iron-ore prices.
Gold producer Newcrest Mining slipped 1.6% as it
rebuffed Newmont Corp's $16.9 billion takeover bid. The
gold miner logged profit that surged past analyst expectations
and paid out a special dividend.
Coal miners Yancoal Australia and Whitehaven slipped after saying they will set aside thousands of
tonnes of coal for use by domestic power generators for 15
months under the New South Wales state government's latest coal
reservation policy.
Power producer Origin Energy ended the day 3.4%
after its earnings missed analyst estimates.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index lifted 0.6%
to 12,157.75 points at end of trade.
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane
Venkatraman)
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