Miners and tech stocks send ASX higher after Wall Street rebounds

The Australian sharemarket pushed higher in early trade on Friday, led by a rally in mining and tech stocks, after US stock pulled closer to their records overnight.

The S&P/ASX 200 was up 86.3 points, or 1 per cent, at 8806 shortly before 11.30am AEDT, with gains for all 11 industry sectors bar financials and consumer staples. The strong morning comes after the local bourse slipped 0.1 per cent on Thursday. The Australian dollar traded at US69.22¢.

The big mining heavyweights powered the early gains on the ASX, with copper and iron ore giants BHP and Rio Tinto climbing 2.8 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively - bouncing back from Thursday’s sell-off as bargain hunters stepped in, and further buoyed by the rebound for tech stocks, with copper being the physical backbone for AI companies. Dip buyers powered a recovery on Wall Street overnight after a chip-stock selloff fuelled by concerns about the artificial intelligence trade.

Gold stocks jumped after bullion rose as much as 1.8 per cent to trade near $US4180 an ounce, recouping from previous session’s losses, while silver also gained. US Treasury yields were down to the lowest in several weeks overnight after a tech-driven stocks rout had spurred haven demand. Lower yields typically push up gold, which suffers when bond yields rise as it pays no interest.

Amid the local gold miners, Northern Star Resources rose 2.5 per cent, Evolution Mining added 1.7 per cent and Newmont jumped 3.7 per cent. Silver producer South32 gained 2.6 per cent.

Tech stocks followed their US peers’ rebound on Wall Street, with software makers WiseTech and Xero up 4.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively, while AI data centre operator NextDC gained 2.4 per cent and family tracking app Life360 surged 7.3 per cent.

Construction company Maas Group, whose shares tanked over the past week over its connection to the failed IPO of tech company Firmus, rallied 10.3 per cent after it told investors its electrical engineering arm JLE was still delivering on its contracts with Firmus, with about $1.1 billion in work that would be finished by the end of 2027. It has been paid $373 million so far, and had a strong balance sheet with $1.7 billion in available liquidity.

Meanwhile, financial stocks struggled after the big four banks surged on Thursday after weaker-than-expected jobs data lowered the likelihood of the Reserve Bank hiking interest rates above 4.6 per cent when it meets in early November. While the banks pass on rate rises to their mortgage customers, they have to brace for more bad debts as borrowers struggle to meet their payments in the high-rate environment.

Commonwealth Bank dropped 0.9 per cent, National Australia Bank fell 1.3 per cent, Westpac lost 1.5 per cent and ANZ Bank edged down 0.3 per cent.

Defensive sectors such as consumer staples and real estate investment trusts struggled in early trade.