The Australian sharemarket has kicked the week off with a bang thanks to a strong lead from Wall Street on Friday night, together with more merger and acquisition activity and a rallying iron ore price.
At noon, the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) was trading 0.8% higher at 5,977 points, while the ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) was up 0.6% at 5,944 points. Here are five stocks that were leading the charge:
iiNet Limited (ASX: IIN) rallied by as much as 17.3% to $10.16 earlier in the session, but is now trading 12.1% higher at $9.71. Six weeks after having received a bid from TPG Telecom Ltd, iiNet received an all-share offer from M2 Group Ltd (ASX: MTU), which has prompted the beginning of a bidding war. That's great news for iiNet shareholders.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) and BC Iron Limited (ASX: BCI) are also firing on all cylinders after the iron ore price jumped another 5.5% during Friday's session, giving it a total gain of 24% since bottoming out earlier this month. Investors are clearly confident the rebound can be sustained and have bid the shares 9.1% and 10.7% higher respectively.
Sundance Energy Australia Limited (ASX: SEA) has risen thanks to a rising oil price with its shares jumping 3.9% to 67.5 cents, up from 44 cents earlier in the month. As has been the case with iron ore, oil prices have jumped strongly in response to data which suggests production could soon fall. This would ease supply-side pressure, thus pushing prices higher.
XERO FPO NZ (ASX: XRO) ("Xero") is also enjoying a minor recovery today after its shares plunged more than 10% on Friday. The company reported its full-year earnings results, revealing a 96% increase in its net loss to $69.5 million. While this was largely due to investment in marketing and product development however, there were also some great signs for the business including an 81% lift in subscription revenue and a 67% jump in paying customers. It seems that some investors may have taken the weekend to consider the company's enormous long-term prospects.
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