By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 added 40.20 points or 0.54% to 7,519.20 during Thursday’s morning deals, extending gains of 0.3% in the previous session as investors tracked a positive session on Wall Street overnight
ASX 200 Futures were pointing 0.13% higher.
Among stocks, Materials added 1.2% collectively, with Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) up 1%, BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) adding 1.3%, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) up 1.1% and Allkem Ltd (ASX:AKE) adding 7.2% after the company announced plans to triple lithium production by 2026.
Information Technology lifted 0.8% as Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) added 1.2, Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) lifted 2.1%, Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) gained 3.1% and Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN) lifted 3.9%.
Financials were just 0.1% higher as Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) gained 0.1%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) lifted 0.5% and Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) gained 0.2%. Meantime, Bank Of Queensland Ltd. (ASX:BOQ) shed 4.1% after reporting a sharp increase in first-half profit on Thursday.
Uniti Group (ASX:UWL) also gained 2.8% after agreeing to a $2.7 billion takeover offer by a unit of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management and fund manager Morrison & Co.
Coming up in the session, investors will be looking toward fresh employment data.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year rates were at 3.04% while United States 10-Year yields were at 2.709%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 0.2% to 11,898.