The blue chips led a rally on the Australian share market to open the week, with banks and miners leading the charge.
The ASX 200 gained 0.8 per cent, closing at 8783.2, up 66.6 points.
The market jumped 1.2 per cent, with the Small Ords lagging to a 0.1 per cent loss.
Rising spot prices for gold, copper and iron ore, along with easing oil prices, saw BHP, Fortescue, Northern Star and South32 all up more than two per cent, with BlueScope Steel rising 3.5 per cent.
Cobre announced ownership of a bigger slice of a Chilean copper project, and shares gained 4.8 per cent.
Lithium and rare earths miners got the other end of the stick, with Lynas Rare Earths and PLS Group shedding 3.1 and 3.7 per cent respectively.
Hopeful sentiment ahead of Wall Street’s earnings season buoyed the domestic banks.
Westpac led with a 2.7 per cent lift, NAB gained 2.3 per cent, ANZ and Macquarie were up about two per cent, and Commonwealth Bank rose 1.1 per cent.
Across the board, only four of 11 sectors finished in the green, with a sell-off in Telstra stock dragging the communications sector down the hardest.
Telstra holds its AGM on Tuesday, and Monday’s declines extend losses from last week prompted by SpaceX getting a US network spectrum deal. Telstra fell 2.5 per cent, and TPG was dragged down 4.9 per cent.
Tech stocks followed a strong US lead, with Megaport rising 4.8 per cent. Xero gained 2.8 per cent after naming former Micron chief executive Mark Durcan as an independent non-executive director.
Defence system company Electro Optic Systems announced last week it had signed a $700m nationwide drone defence contract with “a Middle Eastern Gulf state”, which investors soured on.
On Monday, EOS told the market: “That announcement by EOS did not name the customer as the customer had explicitly requested that EOS refrain from naming it due to national security sensitivities.”
Turns out the UK Ministry of Defence named Kuwait as the customer, in a press release touting 100 new jobs via a subsidiary of the Canberra based company.
Electro Optic slid another four per cent, down 15.3 per cent in the past week.
Bell Potter also upgraded its 12-month price target for the stock from $12.60 to $13.80 – shares closed Monday at $9.73.
The fallout from the Firmus IPO continued, with early investor and holder of large construction contracts, Maas Group, losing another 15 per cent.
The bleed on Maas shares began last week as the Firmus IPO showed signs of cracking, and the stock is down 44 per cent since Tuesday.