Australian share market: Roaring miners and banks take ASX200 to new record high

Australia’s stock market has set a fresh intraday record high, soaring to just shy of 9300 points in the first 30 minutes of the opening bell on Thursday.

The S&P/ASX200 peaked at 9293.4 before losing steam and dropping back to 9270.3 by 9am.

The initial charge was led by banks and miners as they followed the lead of Wall Street overnight where the Dow Jones closed at a record high on signs of progress for a US peace deal with Iran.

But the Nasdaq registered its first decline in five sessions as SpaceX and AMD stumbled following their quarterly earnings.

Only six of the Aussie market’s 11 sectors remained in the green after the first hour, with miners rocketing more than 2 per cent and banks up 0.6 per cent as the rally faded.

Healthcare, telcos and consumers discretionaries and staples also held their gain.

IT stocks dropped one per cent and energy was off 0.9 per cent.

Among the heavyweight miners, BHP was up one per cent, Riot Tinto jumped 0.6 per cent and Fortescue leapt 1.2 per cent.

Struggling Liontown was one of the big winners among WA lithium stocks, rocketing almost 3 per cent. Rivals Mineral Resources and PLS also added about 2 per cent.

But it was gold stocks that proved to be the market’s shining light.

Fresh from presenting at the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder on Wednesday, Pantoro Gold was the day’s star performer, soaring 9.5 per cent.

Andrew Forrest-backed Greatland Gold, also a Diggers presenter, was up 7.6 per cent while Minerals 260 climbed 7.2 per cent.

Fellow precious metal producers Evolution Mining and Vault Minerals — which is in the middle of a $12.6 billion tie-up with Rayleigh Finlayson’s Genesis Minerals — rounded out the top-five winners with gains of more than 6 per cent.

Gold has extended the biggest gain in six months as signs of progress in reopening the Strait of Hormuz eased energy-led pressure on the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Bullion rose as much as 0.8 per cent to around $US4280 an ounce, after jumping 4.1 per cent in the previous session, the biggest rise since February 3.

Iran said it has reached agreement with Oman on a proposed shipping route through the strait, raising the prospect of some energy flows resuming through the critical waterway. Oil fell.

Signs of progress in ending the more than five-month conflict has markets now fully pricing in only a single US rate increase by year-end, down from two as recently as last week. Less monetary tightening is generally positive for precious metals including gold, which generate no yield.