Tech shares push Australia higher on Wall Street cues, New Zealand rises

Australian shares rose one per cent on Thursday boosted by a rally in technology stocks, which tracked their US counterparts and as the country’s second-most populous state of Victoria reported fewer coronavirus cases.

The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 1.1 per cent to 5,941.9 by 0030 GMT, recouping from a 2.2 per cent drop on Wednesday.

Wall Street indexes snapped a three-session losing streak overnight as investors jumped back on the technology bandwagon, a day after the tech-heavy Nasdaq confirmed correction territory.

That helped boost local tech stocks which jumped as much as 3.4 per cent to mark their best intraday rise since August 25.

Buy now pay later firm Afterpay Ltd rose 4.8 per cent and freight software company WiseTech Global gained 2.8 per cent and were among the biggest boosts to the sector.