* Healthcare, information technology stocks do well
* All major sectors trade higher
* Gold stocks buck trend
By Aby Jose Koilparambil
Nov 8 (Reuters) - Australian shares touched two-week highs on Thursday, buoyed by a Wall Street rally after the U.S. midterm elections, though gains lagged the broader surge as investors remained focused on U.S.-China trade issues.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO rose 0.4 percent, or 26.60 points, to 5,923.50 by 0031 GMT and was on track to post a third straight session of gains with all major sectors trading in the positive territory.
Healthcare and information technology - the two Australian sectors that have high revenue exposure to the U.S. market - were buoyed by the election results.
While a divided Congress will make it harder for President Donald Trump to push through new legislation, such as additional tax cuts, investors do not expect a reversal of recently enacted tax cuts and deregulation, which helped support Wall Street stocks. view from the equity markets is that election outcome will leave some room for Democrats to put some checks on Trump's policies and some of the sectors like healthcare like that scenario," said Damien Hennessy, co-founder at Heuristic Investment Systems. "Australia is not trading with too much conviction and hopefully the focus now can move to the U.S. Fed's FOMC meeting starting today and also the trade situation with China."
The healthcare index .AXHJ rose as much as 2 percent with major constituents CSL Ltd CSH.AX and Cochlear Ltd COH.AX rising more than 2 percent each.
The information technology index .AXIJ gained as much as 3.3 percent with payments facilitator Afterpay Touch Group Ltd APT.AX rising as much as 15 percent to become the top percentage gainer in the sector.
Financials and materials too were up in morning trade. Mining behemoths and index heavyweights BHP BHP.AX and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) RIO.AX rose as much as 1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.
Among metals, gold stocks bucked the trend, as the yellow metal is generally less sought after when investors chase riskier assets such as equities.
The ASX gold index .AXGD was the only sector benchmark trading in the red, slipping as much as 1.8 percent with Saracen Mineral Holdings SAR.AX and Perseus Mining PRU.AX falling more than 3 percent each.
The financial index rose as much as 0.5 percent, with three of the 'Big Four' lenders gaining.
National Australia Bank NAB.AX , trading ex-dividend, fell as much as 4.8 percent to cap some gains in the sector.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.6 percent or 57.50 points to 8,912.29.
Oil firm New Zealand Refining Co Ltd NZR.NZ and dairy major Synlait Milk SML.NZ were among the top percentage gainers with both trading up over 3 percent each.