AI bulls keep Aussie stocks running into new records

The US stock market’s seemingly insatiable appetite for all things AI continues to help push the local bourse to fresh record highs.

The ASX200 opened up 0.5 per cent, taking the index just across the 7800-point threshold to a new intraday high of 7802.7 at 7.45am. It had climbed further by 9am as the index rose close to one per cent to 7835.80.

All but three of the 11 sectors were in the green, led by mining and discretionary stocks. Health care and industrials were marginally lower.

By far the biggest winner of the day so far is Virgin Money, with its shares up a whopping 33.7 per cent on news of a £2.9 billion ($5.6b) takeover offer lobbed by rival UK lender Nationwide Building Society. Its UK-listed shares closed up 35 per cent overnight.

Also among the early gainers were Paladin Energy, takeover target Alumina, Boss Energy and Strike Energy.

Perseus Mining, Genesis Minerals, Nine Entertainment, De Grey Mining and Regis Resources were among the early market laggards.

Investor optimism has been stoked by a continuing surge in US markets.

The S&P500 and Nasdaq both hit intraday record highs overnight with support from technology and growth stocks and hopes about prospects for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

Nine of the 11 major S&P500 sectors rose, with communications services and information technology stocks jostling for position as the biggest gainer. Tech last had the lead with a 2 per cent gain while communications services was up 1.9 per cent.

Megacap growth stocks were major contributors to index gains including social media company Meta, up 3.3 per cent, and AI chip darling Nvidia, which was up 4 per cent.