The Australian share market has found its feet after Thursday’s drop to end the week on a high with gas companies celebrating a strategy locking in domestic production.
Stocks across the ASX’s 11 sectors were rebounding from Thursday’s sell-off and the market was tracking for its fifth day of gains in the past six sessions.
At lunchtime AEST on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 39.6 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 7,761.2, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 39.7 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 8033.9.
The energy sector recorded a 1.5 per cent rise following the future gas strategy announced by the federal government on Thursday.
Woodside was up 1.7 per cent and Santos rose 1.5 per cent, with Ampol, Paladin and Viva Energy also in the green off the back of the controversial strategy which sets out to move Australia towards net zero emissions by expanding the country’s reliance on gas.
Uranium miner Deep Yellow, operating across Australia and Namibia, was up 3.4 per cent to $1.67.
The big four banks have all recorded gains, with NAB up 42 points to $33.94, ANZ up 1.1 per cent to $29.11 and Westpac up 0.8 per cent.
CBA rose 0.73 per cent after the federal court ruled in its favour on Friday in a long-running shareholder class action, in which the complainants alleged the bank was in breach of its disclosure obligations.
Life360 was down 5.4 per cent to $14.66 after the family-tracking tech company announced that it had suffered a net loss of $9.8 million in the March quarter.
Chief executive Chris Hull said the results showed continued momentum, however, with paying subscribers nearly doubling to 96,000 and revenue growing 15 per cent year-on-year.
In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP was up 0.05 per cent, Fortescue had risen 0.15 per cent and Rio Tinto had also ticked up 0.43 per cent.
With a few hours left, the ASX200 was on track to finish the week up 1.6 per cent, following last week’s gain of 2.14 per cent.
The Australian dollar was buying 66.08 US cents, from 65.72 US cents at Thursday’s ASX close.