The S&P/ASX 200 Index has built on yesterday's strong gain and pushed higher again on Wednesday. At lunch the benchmark index is up a further 1% to 6,383 points.
Here's what has been happening on the market today:
Bank shares higher again.
At lunch on Wednesday the big four banks are climbing higher again. All four banks are up strongly today, with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares pushing around 1.2% higher at the time of writing. Investors appear confident ahead of next month's results releases.
Tech shares storm higher.
The information technology sector is once again one of the best performing areas of the market. At lunch the S&P/ASX 200 Info Tech index is up a sizeable 2.5% thanks to strong gains from the likes of Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) and WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC). Both these tech stars have seen their shares rally at least 4.5% higher today.
Northern Star disappoints.
A disappointing third quarter update from Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) led to its shares sinking 6% lower this morning. They have since recovered some of these declines but are still down 2% at lunch. The gold miner fell short of the market's expectations due to weak production at its Pogo operation.
Pro Medicus hits an all-time high.
The Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME) share price surged 8% higher to an all-time high of $9.27 this morning after the health imaging company announced that its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Visage Imaging, has signed a seven-year contract with Duke Health worth $14 million. The contract will see the company's Visage 7 technology implemented across all of Duke Health's radiology departments and integrated into its electronic health record.
Best and worst performers.
The best performer on the ASX 200 on Wednesday has been the Altium share price with a gain of 4.5%. Its shares have rallied higher after investors piled into the tech sector following a positive night of trade on Wall Street's technology-focused Nasdaq index. Going the other way is the New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC) share price which has dropped 3.5% despite there being no news out of the coal miner.
