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Australian shares finish higher led by healthcare sector

Announcement posted by de2 Communications 30 Aug 2016

SYDNEY: 30 AUGUST 2016: The Australian share market finished higher today despite a drop early in the session this morning.

“We saw the market opened strongly breaking through 5500 level, but then it dropped fairly quickly. It is good to see it managed to still finished the day higher,” said Chris Conway, Head of Research and Trading at Australian Stock Report.

According to Conway, the top performing sector was Healthcare which added 1.2%, led by Ramsay Healthcare (RHC) which was up 7.8 per cent. Estia Health (EHE) had another poor day lagging the rest of the index by dropping 15.1 per cent.

On the other hand, Austal Ltd (ASB) had a great day adding 14 per cent following its positive guidance from their earnings results yesterday.

Flexigroup (FXL) had a positive full year report, giving a commitment to retain their payout ratio after positive double-digit growth, the stock added 7.5 per cent in trading today.

Gateway Lifestyle (GTY) was the other poor performer today, dropping 13 per cent today after releasing full year results.

In the commodities markets, Brent Crude oil finished slightly higher at $US49.4 (0.2%), Iron ore was mostly unchanged adding at $US59.14, and Spot Gold was flat losing $US0.9 (0.1%) to $US1322.6.

In the currency markets, the Aussie dollar was buying 75.66 US cents as the US dollar continued to get support on the back of expectations of a rate rise in the US.

The S&P/ASX 200 finished at 5478.3 up 9.1 points (0.2%).

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For more information, visit: http://www.australianstockreport.com.au/