Australia's S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO)(ASX: XJO) and ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) indices finished higher on Thursday.
Here's a short recap of the Australian market:
- S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) higher 1.88% to 5,597.20
- ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) higher 1.84% to 5,662.10
- AUD/USD at US 71 cents
- Gold at US$1,255.60 an ounce
- Brent Oil at US$54.35 a barrel
The best-performing ASX 200 share today was Ausdrill Limited (ASX: ASL), the mining and energy services business went up 7.4%.
It was an excellent day for many of the ASX's most popular growth shares. The Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) share price went up 6.1%, shares of WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) rose by 5.8% and the Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price went up 5.2%.
Infant formula businesses also saw large gains as the share market recovered today. The A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) share price rose 3.4% and Bellamy's Australia Ltd (ASX: BAL) shares went up 6.5%.
Speedcast International Ltd (ASX: SDA) shares fell nearly 5% after admitting on Christmas Eve that its profit may be a little lower than the market is estimating.
Another of the rare fallers was the Healthscope Ltd (ASX: HSO) share price falling by 1.4%.
Small cap healthcare product distributor Paragon Care Ltd (ASX: PGC) shares rose by 5.7% today.
Finally, the small cap water entitlement business Duxton Water Ltd (ASX: D2O) shares went up 4.2%.
Here are some of today's top stories:
