The Australian sharemarket has opened stronger on Thursday, after US stock indexes stormed back from big early drops to finish higher overnight, led by a handful of influential Big Tech companies.
Logistics software developer WiseTech led the charge in the information technology sector, up 2.2 per cent, following the strong lead from the US tech giants overnight. The big four banks all grew, led by Westpac, up 1.4 per cent at $32.30 a share. The sharp seesaw trading, where the Nasdaq composite roared back from an earlier 1.4 per cent slide, followed the government’s latest update on inflation at the consumer level. Overall inflation slowed to 2.5 per cent in August from 2.9 per cent in July, a touch better than expected. But prices rose more than expected from July into August when ignoring food and energy, and economists say that can be a better predictor of where inflation is heading.