The Australian sharemarket rose on Thursday, with hopes for a US-Iran deal which would see the Strait of Hormuz reopen sending the bourse to another record high before the local earnings season swings into full force next week.
The S&P/ASX 200 built on the record close it set yesterday, adding 50.4 points, or 0.6 per cent to 9,278.2 at the opening bell on Thursday. Five of the 11 sectors were lower.
The local bourse had been expected to open down, following declines on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq overnight after major artificial intelligence stocks Alphabet and SpaceX slid. Sentiment on Wall Street was unhelped by US Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook flagging that she was prepared to raise interest rates in the world's largest economy if inflation did not abate.
"Momentum is holding in the US market, as per yesterday's high in the S&P 500 index," said Paco Chow, dealing manager at Moomoo Australia and New Zealand.
"But it's fractured: money is rotating into names with clear artificial intelligence story, such as Nvidia, and out of those heavy on capital expenditure, such as Alphabet, as investors fear margin compression despite strong revenue."
But the move down on Wall Street was overpowered by more good news for investors out of the Middle East, with Iran's foreign ministry flagging that it had agreed with Oman on plans for a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, and that a joint statement on the route was soon to follow.
On the ASX, energy was the unsurprising loser of positive news out of the Middle East, with another 0.9 per cent drop for Woodside and a 0.3 per cent fall for Santos leading the sector to a 0.7 per cent slide. Brent Crude oil opened just above $US76 a barrel at the start of Asian trading.
Meanwhile, materials added to their gains earlier this week, with the sector up 1.7 per cent after news late yesterday that Glencore would pursue a secondary listing on the ASX after failing to merge with Rio Tinto earlier this year. BHP gained another 0.9 per cent, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue were up 1 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.
But slides in technology stocks in the US appear to have caught to the local tech, with WiseTech Global down 2.4 per cent and Life360 down 1.6 per cent to lead the sector to a 1 per cent loss.
Stocks in focus
REA Group climbed 1.6 per cent after posting an 11 per cent surge in revenue for the 2026 financial year.
AMP added 4.1 per cent the group announced a 57 per surge in profit and a $150 million share buyback.
Beach Energy, which is backed by Kerry Stokes' SGH, fell 3.4 per cent after the company announced a 21 per cent decline in underlying profit.
Block dropped 3 per cent, despite announcing earnings results in the US this morning which beat market expectations.

Sumber : AFR