Australia's S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO)(ASX: XJO) and ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) indices finished higher on Thursday.
Here's a quick recap of the Aussie market:
- S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) up 0.1%
- ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) up 0.1%
- AUD/USD at US 78.28 cents
- Gold at US$1,285 an ounce, down 1.2%
- Oil at US$52.03 a barrel, up 0.3%
Amongst the best-performing shares on the market were Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG), which rose 2.3%, and BlueScope Steel Ltd (ASX: BSL), finishing 3.6% higher.
Despite their gains, neither blue chip company reported any material news to the market.
Further down the market shares of technology companies XERO FPO NZ (ASX: XRO) and WiseTech Corporation Ltd (ASX: WTC) gained more than 5%. Xero is the rapidly-growing Kiwi cloud accounting software company which was recently admitted into the ASX's top 300 companies. WiseTech is the global logistics software business. Both companies have witnessed their shares rally strongly in recent months.
On the other side of the ledger, shares of gold miners Regis Resources Limited (ASX: RRL) and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX: SAR) fell 4% as gold prices showed some weakness.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) reversed yesterday's gains to fall 2.7%.
Here are today's top stories:
