Tourism and travel-related stocks such as Flight Centre Travel Group, Sydney Airport Holdings and Qantas Airways rose more than 8 per cent each on the news.
Nearly all stocks on the sub-index were higher, with Oil Search and Beach Energy climbing more than 14 per cent each. National Australia Bank ended 7.6 per cent higher, overtaking Sydney-based rival Westpac Banking as the country's second-largest lender based on market value.