ASX climbs, Wall Street and European markets rise as Boris Johnson resigns

The Australian share market ended its day with moderate gains after a positive session on Wall Street, while European stocks jumped after the British Prime Minister’s resignation.

The benchmark ASX 200 index gained 0.5 per cent, to close at 6,678 points, with energy and materials being the best-performing sectors.

The broader All Ordinaries rose by 0.6 per cent to 6,877.

Some of the best performing stocks were Life360 (+14.3pc), Pilbara Minerals (+6.8pc), St Barbara (+9.6pc), Liontown Resources (+7.3pc) and Whitehaven Coal (+6.3pc).

On the flip side, Skycity Entertainment (-6.5pc), Orora (-5.9pc), Collins Foods (-3.9pc), Magellan Financial (-3pc) and Zip Co (-2.8pc) suffered heavy losses.

The Australian dollar was slightly lower at 68.3 US cents, by 4:30pm AEST on Friday.

Meanwhile, the ACCC has issued a draft determination, proposing to grant authorisation for Virgin Australia to enter into codeshare pricing arrangements with its international airline partners for five years.

It means Virgin Australia’s international airline partners will be able to set the fares for international long-haul flights that Virgin Australia can market and resell to consumers.

“The ACCC’s preliminary assessment is that these arrangements are likely to result in more choice and greater convenience for consumers looking to book international trips that include connecting flights operated by Virgin Australia,” ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said.

“There will be no competitive overlap between the parties on any route under these proposed arrangements, and other airlines, including Qantas, will provide competition to Virgin Australia and its partners on those particular long-haul international routes.”

Virgin does not operate any long-haul international flights. 

The ACCC is taking submissions on the codesharing proposal until July 29.

Tech stocks bounce

The Wall Street benchmarks ended up on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recording their fourth-successive higher closes, as traders leaned in to US equities after the Federal Reserve hinted at a more tempered program of interest rate hikes.

The  benchmark S&P 500 index has closed higher in all four sessions this month after recording its steepest first-half percentage drop since 1970. 

Investors were digesting minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s June policy meeting, which acknowledged the risk of rate increases having a larger-than-anticipated effect on economic growth. 

The minutes also said an increase of 50 or 75 basis points would likely be appropriate at the policy meeting in July.

The less hawkish tone came after fears aggressive rate hikes could trigger a recession.

Tech heavyweights rose, with Tesla  up 5.5 per cent, Google parent Alphabet adding 3.7 per cent, and Affirm Holdings and Avalara gaining, respectively, 17.1 per cent and 16.4 per cent.

“It’s starting to feel like real money is starting to come back,” Louis Ricci, head trader at Emles Advisors, said.

“There’s no reason that the market cannot go down another 30 per cent, but we think the risk is 30 per cent to the downside but three to four times that to the upside.”

Meanwhile, a report on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week and demand for labour was slowing, with lay-offs surging to a 16-month high in June. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 346.87 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 31,384.55.

The S&P 500 gained 57.54 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 3,902.62, while the Nasdaq Composite added 259.49 points, or 2.2 per cent, to 11,621.35.

Almost all of the S&P sectors were higher. Energy was the biggest winner, up 3.5 per cent as oil and gas companies followed the rebound in crude prices from the previous day’s 12-week low.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index climbed 4.5 per cent after South Korea’s Samsung Electronics turned in its best second-quarter profit since 2018, driven by strong sales of memory chips.

In Europe, investors reacted to news of Boris Johnson resigning as UK Prime Minister. Some may be hoping his departure will mean a better relationship with Europe.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 1.9 per cent, Germany’s DAX rose 2 per cent and Britain’s FTSE added 1.1 per cent.

Oil markets jumped as tight supply outweighed recession fears. 

Brent crude was up 3.4 per cent and worth $US104.10 per barrel, while West Texas crude rose 3.7 per cent to $US102.24 per barrel.

The iron ore futures price rose by $US1.85 on Thursday, or 1.6 per cent, to $US114.18 a tonne.

Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent and selling for $US1,739.20.