The Australian sharemarket climbed, led by a rally in energy and gold stocks as the oil price surged in Asia after Hamas’ bloody weekend incursions into Israel.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 jumped 31.4 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 6985.6 by 10.30am AEDT after the shock attacks on Israel sent oil surging more than 4 per cent and investors piled into gold as a safe haven asset.
A rally on Wall Street also buoyed the sharemarket as investors shrugged off a better-than-expected US labour force report. The attacks on Israel began after markets closed in New York on Friday, at 6.35am Israeli time on Saturday, (11.35pm in New York on Friday, 2.35pm AEDT on Saturday).
“Key for markets is whether the conflict remains contained or spreads to involve other regions, particularly Saudi Arabia,” wrote ANZ rate strategist Gregorius Steven in a note to clients. “Initially at least, it seems markets will assume the situation will remain limited in scope, duration, and oil-price consequences. But higher volatility can be expected.”
FX, commodity moves
The $US rose against its major peers on Monday as currency traders got their first chance to react to the conflict. The $US, a safe haven in times of trouble,…
