Australian shares rise as investors buy battered stocks, with banks leading the way

Australian shares eked modest gains on Thursday, as investors picked up beaten-down tech, bank, and energy stocks after a two-day slide triggered by the escalating Middle East conflict.

After a 3.2% decline in the two previous sessions, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 8,940.30. Global equity markets rallied after a significant selloff during the previous sessions, following gains in U.S. stocks overnight. Financials in Australia led the way on Thursday with a 0.8% gain, its best session since February 19. Three of the "Big Four' banks increased between 0.4% to 0.6%.

Kai Chen, director of investment advisory firm MPC Markets attributed the dip-buying.

Although Australian shares fell?earlier this week, the losses were not as severe due to an index composition that was more geared towards energy and resources stocks, Chen said.

Chen explained that the ASX "energy and material tilt" meant the Middle East disruption had a partial positive effect on a portion of the index. This cushioned the downside to a degree that Tokyo and Seoul could not replicate. The rise in oil prices boosted energy firms by 0.8%. Woodside, the oil?major, fell 1% in ex-dividend trading while its smaller rival Santos rose 1%. Healthcare and tech stocks both gained 1.9% and 4.6%, respectively. The broader mining index lost 0.5%. This was largely due to BHP's 1% drop as it went ex-dividend. Rio Tinto, Fortescue and other rivals gained 1,2% and 2,1% respectively. This was due to a rise in iron ore prices following China's announcement of promising economic measures. Gold stocks dropped?1.5%, marking their third consecutive session of losses. New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 benchmark index almost recovered Wednesday's loss, climbing 0.6% to 13,617.89. (Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

(source: Reuters)