The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.16 per cent to close at 7,313 points, having risen as high as 7,370 points earlier in the day. The index is up 11 per cent so far in the first half of 2021, compared with an 8 per cent fall in the same year-ago period.
Australia’s biggest telecom firm Telstra scaled a 16-1/2-month high after it announced plans to sell nearly half of its mobile tower business for A$2.8 billion ($2.11 billion).
The index was lifted too by record closing highs on Wall Street and gains on mining stocks, while the end of Australia’s corporate financial year spurred institutional buying.
“The volumes are particularly huge today as the financial year-end provided a pleasant distraction from the dour coronavirus-related news with heavy end-of-year institutional buying,” Henry Jennings, senior analyst at Marcustoday Financial Newsletter said.
“Market confidence was also lifted after Telstra hit its highest level since the start of the pandemic on selling its mobile towers business.”
Mineral sands producer Iluka Resources Ltd, seen as one of the prime beneficiaries of Rio Tinto’s decision to halt mining at its Richards Bay project in South Africa, jumped to the highest since April 2012.
It was the top gainer on the benchmark, posting its biggest one-day gain since early-2016
But with iron ore prices set for a seventh straight quarterly gain, shares of Rio Tinto rose more than 2 per cent to a three-week high, pushing miners 0.94 per cent higher
Sector heavyweight BHP Group Ltd soared 1.6 per cent.
The financial index closed 0.02 per cent higher, with National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp adding as much as 0.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively.
However, AGL Energy fell 9.7 per cent after the country’s top power producer said it expects to split into a bulk power generator and a carbon-neutral energy retailer by June 2022 and would stop paying special dividends.
Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.1 per cent to 12654.6. ($1 = 1.3301 Australian dollars)
