‘Bullish sentiment is back’: ASX hits three month high

The Australian sharemarket inched closer to a record high during Tuesday’s trading, notching up its fourth-straight day of gains as “deals get done” and “risk on sentiment” returns to the market.

Despite a flat start to trading the benchmark ASX 200 index gained by 46.60 points, or 0.56 per cent, to finish the session at 8,407.60 points.

The broader All Ordinaries rose by 42.70 points, or 0.50 per cent, to close at 8,631.50 points.

All four big banks finished in the green led by Westpac which is up 1.7 per cent to $31.78, while ANZ jumped 1.4 per cent to $29.06, NAB added 0.9 per cent to $37.75 and Australia’s largest bank CBA closed 0.8 per cent higher at $175.34.

As Wall Street enjoyed its long weekend, Australian investors confidence rose on the back of tariff pauses between Washington and the European Union.

US President Donald Trump says he will pause a 50 per cent tariff on the EU until July 9, to give the trading bloc a chance to work out a trade deal.

“Bullish sentiment is back, trade deals are getting done, political global leaders are doing deals and want to do deals … everyone is looking forward to Nvidia saying what the world is going to look like for the next 10 years with 60 per cent of the biggest companies in the world buying more Nvidia chips,” Moomoo market strategist Jessica Amir told NewsWire.

“Markets are probably going to take out their records very soon.”

With the anticipation of Nvidia’s announcement, the information technology sector drove the ASX rise with gains of 1.10 per cent, and 2.30 per cent for the past five days, led by Wisetech and Technology One.

The second spark was ignited by Aussie copper stocks, with Capstone Copper Corp surged 6.5 per cent to $8.43 and Sandfire Resources jumped 3.09 per cent to $11.36 after Canadian heavy-hitter Ivanhoe Mines pulling out of Africa’s biggest copper mine.

“Copper is having a field day … China is probably about to really ramp up their production and development of semiconductors and new energy materials to power their economy for the next five years,” Ms Amir said.

In corporate news, Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady told investors Telstra would decrease their workforce by 2030 in favour of AI.

TLS gained 0.42 per cent stronger to $4.75 despite opening in the red, following Telstra’s investor day where it announced its five-year Connected Future 30 strategy.

Woodside closed at 0.6 per cent higher with the market responding to an imminent decision from federal Environment Minister Murray Watt on whether to extend the operation of WA’s North West Shelf gas project to 2070.

The decision is due by Saturday, May 31.

The Australian dollar roughly held buying 64.42 US cents despite the Reserve Bank of Australia signalling further rate cuts.

The US dollar traded on its third straight day of losses as the presumption of American exceptionalism continues to corrode under the unpredictable leadership of President Trump.

“The rise of the AUD is all about the death of the dollar, the US dollar. So not only do we have all the other major currencies rising such as the Aussie dollar, but we’ve also got the European dollar hitting one of its highest levels that we’ve seen for some time,” Ms Amir said.