ASX higher as bargain hunters buy up banks Telstra

Another day another record on Wall Street.

While U.S. equities continue to run white hot back down under the blue chips continue to edge higher.

It’s not quite a hare and tortoise comparison but the ASX does take leads from the U.S. to trade higher but not at such a brisk pace.

The Dow is up 13% YTD with the ASX 200 adding a more modest 8.9%.

On the day though the ASX 200 added 0.3% to 5433 while the ASX All Ords managed a 0.3% gain to 5437.

The big four banks led the blue chips higher with some bargain hunting entering the market.


Big 4 banks

ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) up 1.3% to $31.84; Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) up 0.4% to $77.88; National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) up 1.7% to $33.77; Westpac (ASX:WBC) up 0.6% to $33.25.


Other banks financials and industrials

AMP (ASX:AMP) up 0.4% to $5.60; Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) up 0.6% to $12.14; Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) up 0.1% to $12.20; Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) down 0.3% to $58.54; Suncorp (ASX:SUN) down 0.3% to $14.26; Telstra (ASX:TLS) up 0.6% to $5.42.


Retailers

JB Hi-FI (ASX:JBH) up 0.8% to $16.66; Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) UP 0.2% to $42.95; Woolworths (ASX:WOW) up 0.1% to $35.03.


Major miners
 
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) down 0.3% to $35.59; Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) down 3.4% to $3.80; Newcrest (ASX:NCM) down 1.3% to $10.13; Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) down 0.7% to $61.57.


Energy or Oil and Gas

Oil Search (ASX:OSH) up 1.2% to $9.30; Santos (ASX:STO) down 0.8% to $14.40; Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) up 0.4% to $41.79.

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news articles and research reports on ASX “Small and Mid-cap” stocks with distribution in Australia UK North America and Hong Kong / China.