By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 added 22.50 points or 0.30% to 7,428.70 in Monday’s mid-morning deals, trading near fresh 2-month highs following gains of 1.5% in the previous week as higher iron ore prices boosted mining companies while a continued selloff of government bonds hit tech players while buoying financials.
ASX 200 Futures were pointing 0.37% lower.
Among stocks, Materials added 1.2% overall with Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) up 1.81%, BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) adding 1.47%, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) up 1.84%, Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) adding 2.34%, Avz Minerals Ltd (ASX:AVZ) up 1.32%, Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) gaining 2.5% and European Lithium Ltd (ASX:EUR) up 3.57%.
Financials moved 0.5% higher collectively as Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) added 0.5%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) lifted 0.8%, National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) gained 0.7%, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) added 0.44% and Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) gained 0.7%. Meantime, Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) lost 2.53%
Technology was around 1.8% lower with Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) falling 3.3%, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) down 1%, Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) falling 1.38%, Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) dipping 1.8%, Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU) down 1.3%, Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) shedding 3.5% and Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) down 3%.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year yields eased slightly from fresh 46-month highs of 2.848% while United States 10-Year rates were at 34-month highs of 2.479%.
Ahead in the week, market participants will be looking toward fresh retail sales data due on Tuesday as investors assess the health of consumer spending in the country.