By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - Australian shares advanced 1.1 per cent, or 77.8 points, to 7175.2 on Wednesday, retracing losses of 0.73% in the previous session, buoyed by rallying in technology stocks following a strong lead on Wall Street overnight.
Among stocks, Technology companies rose 3.55% with Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) surging 6.96%, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) up 4.78%, Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) adding 4.07%, Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU) up 2.12%, Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) lifting 2.05% while Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN) lost 3.13%.
Travel stocks benefited from an announcement that New Zealand will reopen its borders to Australian tourists sooner than expected. Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN) added 2.23%, Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT) gained 1.87%, Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB) gained 3.28%, Helloworld Ltd (ASX:HLO) added 3.45% and Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:CTD) added 5.26%.
Materials were about 0.39% higher as Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) added 0.15%, BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) eased 0.42%, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) added 1.46%, Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) gained 1.17%, Lake Resources NL (ASX:LKE) added 11.25% and South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) added 2.8%.
Financials gained 1.05% as Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) added 1.76%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) lifted 1.8%, National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) gained 0.36%, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) added 0.85% and Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) gained 0.94%, while Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) added 1.42%.
Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) climbed 3.9% after announcing an on-market share buyback.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year yields were slightly off fresh 39-month highs at 2.487% while United States 10-Year rates were at 2.153%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 0.61% to 11,874.11.