The Australian share market has moved higher as strong gains in the healthcare sector offset declines among the large miners.
The Australian share market has moved higher as strong gains in the healthcare sector offset declines among the large miners.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 36.9 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 6,761.0 points at 1200 AEDT on Monday, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 33.6 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 6,866.8 points.
Healthcare shares held on to most of their early gains to remain the best performers with a 1.88 per cent rise by midday, while the industrial and tech sectors also added more than 1.0 per cent each.
Pharma giant CSL was up 2.28 per cent, ResMed rose 1.76 per cent and Cochlear gained 1.70 per cent.
Among industrials, Qantas was up 2.24 per cent and Transurban was up 1.9 per cent.
In the volatile tech sector, Afterpay jumped 4.78 per cent, Appen was up 3.41 per cent and Bravura Solutions lost 1.15 per cent.
Mining giant BHP was down 0.52 per cent to $37.105, Rio Tinto was down 1.59 per cent to $93.72 and Fortescue Metals was down 4.02 per cent to $9.195 as Chinese iron ore futures slipped.
The big four banks were mixed, with ex-dividend trading ANZ down 2.36 per cent to $25.63, Commonwealth up 0.82 per cent to $79.82, NAB up 1.33 per cent to $28.85 and Westpac up 1.02 per cent to $27.70.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank edged up 0.05 cent, Bank of Queensland was up 0.29 per cent and Macquarie Group - also trading ex-dividend on Monday - was down 0.90 per cent.
Elders was up 6.11 per cent after the company said new acquisitions Titan pesticides and Livestock in Transit insurance had helped offset drought-ravaged crop volumes.
Domain Holdings was up 3.21 per cent after the real estate classifieds group said it would pay up to $35 million for the operator of digital property service Real Time Agent.
Bubs Australia gained 4.21 per cent after the goat milk formula maker struck a distribution deal with Vietnamese mother and baby store chain BiboMart.
On Wall Street on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.02 per cent, the S&P 500 finished up 0.25 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.48 per cent.
The Aussie dollar is buying 68.56 US cents, from 68.82 US cents on Friday.
