A solid day of trading has left the Australian share market in the green after the ASX followed a rise on Wall Street.
The benchmark ASX 200 index gained by 11.2 points, or 1.6 per cent, to finish the session at 7,246.9 for its biggest one day rise since January.
Companies from all sectors would have come out of Thursday’s trading happy with no falls across the board.
The lift comes after US inflation data dropped overnight, with the rising cost of goods and services now at three per cent, down four per cent in June.
Real estate made the largest jump, a whopping 3.2 per cent followed by IT with a 2.3 per cent rise, consumer discretionary with a 2.2 per cent rise and materials with a 2.1 per cent uptick.
Despite not making as much of a splash as real estate, the miners took up three spots in the top five shares traded with Perseus Mining rising 8.1 per cent (last price $1.8), Evolution Mining rising 7.3 per cent ($3.7) and Regis Resources rising 6.3 per cent ($2.2).
The market reacted well to the news that mining magnate and billionaire couple Andrew and Nicole Forrest were splitting up.
Fortescue rose by 1.3 per cent to finish the day with a $22.5 asking price after the pair made an announcement on Wednesday night that they would separate after 31 years of marriage.
“There is no impact on the operations, control or direction of Fortescue, Minderoo or Tattarang,” they said in a statement.
The other miners also saw an upswing today, with BHP up by 1.5 per cent to last trade at $44.7, while Santos and Woodside rose by 1.3 per cent to trade at $7.7 and $35.7 respectively.
Rio Tinto charged ahead with a 3 per cent rise to trade at $117.2.
The banks were also up as the big four finished appearances before the House standing committee on economics in Canberra.
Fronting the committee today were Westpac, whose shares rose 1.2 per cent to end trading at $21.5, and Commonwealth Bank, which received a 1.5 per cent boost to trade at $100.6.
ANZ rose by 1.4 per cent to reach $24.4 and NAB trailed behind with a 0.5 per cent gain to trade at $26.6.
The worst traders today were in the insurance sector, with QBE Insurance falling by 2.9 per cent ($15), NIB falling 1.8 per cent ($8.3) and Medibank dropping by 1.5 per cent ($3.4).
Other standouts today were Domino’s which rose by 3 per cent to trade at $48.7 and Qantas which rose 1.8 per cent to sell at $6.3.