At lunch on Wednesday the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has followed the lead of international markets and is up 0.1% to 5,822 points.
The information technology and financial sectors have done a lot of the heavy lifting, offsetting declines in the materials sector.
Here's what has been happening on the ASX 200 on Wednesday:
Big four banks push higher.
The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price is up almost 1% at lunch, making it the best performing big four bank. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) shares are also pushing higher today.
Tech shares are on fire.
Australian tech shares including Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) and WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) have stormed higher on Wednesday following a positive night of trade for their U.S. equivalents on the Nasdaq. Netflix was the best performer with a sizeable 6.5% gain. On the local market Appen and WiseTech lead the way with gains of over 3% at lunch.
Gold miners tumble.
Improving investor sentiment has led to investors selling off safe haven assets again on Wednesday. This has led to gold miners such as Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST), Regis Resources Limited (ASX: RRL), and Resolute Mining Limited (ASX: RSG) falling around 3%. The S&P/ASX All Ords Gold index is down 2.4% at noon.
Best and worst performers.
The best performer on the ASX 200 at lunch is the Ausdrill Limited (ASX: ASL) share price which is up 6.5%. This gain means the diversified mining services company's shares have now reversed the declines made earlier this week when they tumbled to within touching distance of a 52-week low. Going the other way is the Regis Resources share price, closely followed by the Iluka Resources Limited (ASX: ILU) share price which has fallen 3.5% due to weakness in the materials sector.
