The Australian market rebounded on Wednesday to close the midweek session 1.1% higher at 7175.20 points driven by a rally for tech stocks following a strong session for the tech-heavy Nasdaq overnight.
The stocks that made headlines today were:
Alpha HPA rocketed 15.2% after the Australian-based specialty metals and technology company released an interim financial report and announced that the company has been awarded a $45 million grant from the Federal Government under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative.
Australian travel stocks rallied today after New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand?s hard border with Australia will come down from April 13th allowing fully vaccinated Aussies to travel across the ditch quarantine-free. Qantas shares lifted 2.2%, Webjet added 3%, Flight Centre rallied 1.3% and Air New Zealand closed the day up 2.3%.
And Suncorp rose 0.8% today after increasing its full-year natural hazard costs estimate to $1.1bn from the previous estimate of $1.075bn, while Suncorp?s retained net loss from these natural events remains unchanged at $75m. Suncorp?s response to the disasters included customer support teams sent to hard hit regions to provide face-to-face claims support after receiving more than 34,000 claims in QLD and NSW.