The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.6 per cent higher at 7,066, after ending up 0.1 per cent in the previous session.
Software firm Nuix Ltd rebounded from Monday’s lows and rose 11.5 per cent and was the top percentage gainer on the benchmark, after its chairman pledged improvements following a local media report raising questions about its governance and accounting.
Gold and oil are “clearly the favoured destination for the fast money herd overnight,” Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note.
Gold stocks rose 2 per cent, hitting a more than four-month high as bullion prices soared on rising inflationary pressures and dollar weakness, with country’s biggest gold miner Newcrest Mining gaining 1.1 per cent, after touching a 6-month high earlier in the day.
This helped in offsetting a nearly 9 per cent plunge in gold miner St Barbara after it cut its full-year production targets.
Energy stocks rose for a fourth straight session and closed up 1.6 per cent, tracking an uptick in oil prices on hopes of a solid recovery in fuel demand following the reopenings of the U.S. and European economies.
Heavyweights Woodside Petroleum and Santos rose 2.1 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.
Financials jumped 0.8 per cent while tech stocks climbed 0.4 per cent.
Miners gained 2.1 per cent, as iron ore prices jumped on robust demand. The mining trio Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals gained between 1.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent.
Across the Tasman sea, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.1 per cent to finish the session at 12,428.62.
