S&P/ ASX 200 closes 0.57 percent higher as miners rally

The S&P/ASX 200 closed at 8,735.7 points at 4:30 p.m. AEDT on Tuesday, October 6, up 0.57 percent, or 49.3 points, from Monday's close. According to Samso, the index reached an intraday high of 8,753.0 points. Real estate and materials shares led the advance as technology stocks fell.

Property and materials lead

Real estate gained 1.11 percent and materials rose 0.91 percent, according to Motley Fool Australia. Information technology dropped 2.90 percent, its weakest performance among the 11 sectors.

PerthNow said Metcash rose 4.9 percent and Arena REIT gained 4.8 percent. Materials stocks also advanced, with Alcoa up 4.1 percent, Liontown 3.1 percent and Mineral Resources 2.4 percent. Rio Tinto added 1.1 percent after Morgan Stanley reaffirmed its underweight view while citing asset monetization potential.

Wall Street support, weak confidence

The session followed a record close for the Nasdaq Composite, while property and mining gains outweighed technology losses. ABC News reported that the real estate sub-index gained 1.2 percent and that Australia's 10-year bond yield was 5.41 percent.

Westpac's consumer sentiment index fell 4.7 percent to 80.4 in October from 84.4, with the decline linked to concerns about living costs, interest rates and jobs. Yahoo Finance said the result missed a forecast decline of 1.2 percent and followed the Reserve Bank of Australia's increase in the cash rate to 4.60 percent.

7NEWS reported that technology stocks fell as recent winners faced profit-taking, while real estate rebounded after three sessions of losses. The Australian dollar was trading at 69.7 US cents.

What is next

Australian building approvals for August are scheduled for release at 11:30 a.m. AEDT on Wednesday, October 7, according to Swingfolio. Markets will also track the global response to the Federal Reserve's September meeting minutes, scheduled for release on October 7 at 6:00 p.m. GMT.

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