By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 added 34 points or 0.5% to 6,763.3 after the first hour of Thursday’s trade,snapping two sessions of consecutive decline and lifting from 7-week lows as optimistic investors tracked a positive session on Wall Street overnight.
ASX 200 Futures were trading flat at 6,756.5.
Among stocks, the rate sensitive Tech sector led the advance, up 2% with Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) up 3.6%, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) adding 2.3%, Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) up 7.6%, Link Administration Holdings Ltd (ASX:LNK) adding 6.3% and Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) up 4.4%.
Utilities rebounded 0.9% with Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG) up 0.4%, AGL Energy Ltd (ASX:AGL) lifting 4.4% and Infratil Ltd (ASX:IFT) up 0.2%.
However, Energy companies bucked the trend, shedding 4.1% as Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:WDS) fell 7% after trading ex-dividend, Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) lost 2.4%, Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) dipped 1.1% and Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA) lost 0.2%.
Ahead in the session, market participants will be closely monitoring fresh trade balance data while RBA governor Philip Lowe is slated to speak at 1:05pm (AEST) at the Annika Foundation’s “Inflation and the Monetary Policy Framework” event.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year rates were at 3.632% while United States 10-Year yields were at 3.261%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 was up 85.2 points or 0.8% to 11,634.5.