By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - the S&P/ASX 200 added 69.6 points or 1% to 7,245.5 after the first hour of Friday’s trade, buoyed by strong gains in the Materials and Technology sectors.
ASX 200 Futures were pointing 0.2% lower.
Among stocks, rising Iron ore prices overnight boosted miners, with Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) up 3%, BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) gaining 2.4%, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) up 3.4% and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) adding 6.9%. Lithium miners also recovered from losses earlier in the week, with Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX:LTR) adding 5%, Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) up 3.7% and Magnis Resources Ltd (ASX:MNS) gaining 4%.
Information Technology gained 2.6%, tracking a strong session on Wall Street, with Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) adding 4.7%, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) up 1.8%, Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) gaining 2.9%, Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) lifting 4.6%, Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN) gaining 2.4% and Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU) up 3.3%.
Real estate stocks lifted 0.5%, with Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) up 1.2%, Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) lifting 1.5%, Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) up 0.5%, Stockland Corporation Ltd (ASX:SGP) adding 0.8% and Scentre Group Ltd (ASX:SCG) lifting 0.4%.
Financials were up 0.2%, with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) up 0.6%, Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) gaining 0.3%, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) adding 0.6% and National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) 0.3%.
Meantime, Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) dropped 4.5% after reporting “more difficult market conditions” in the second half of the financial year.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year yields were near fresh 8-year highs of 3.524% while United States 10-Year rates were at 2.913%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 0.5% to 11,406.1.