The ASX has already easily topped March’s weak fall in the first three trading days of April.
The index is up 104 points at 6,285.0 at the close yesterday since closing at 6,180.7 last Friday.
That 1.68% compared with the 0.19% drop in March (which came from the 0.23% slide in the last week of March).
While that left the index up 9.5% for the first quarter and Australian shares were up 9.5% in the three months but the fall here was echoed by weakness in offshore markets.
So it is something of a surprise that the market has bounded ahead so strongly in early April – perhaps the continuing strength in iron ore prices is helping.
In fact, the ASX extended its gain into a seventh straight session on Wednesday as continued market optimism helped the market close at a more than six-month high.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 42.6 points, or 0.7 percent, to 6285 while the All Ordinaries ended 40.9 points or 0.7% at 6368.7.
The price of iron ore rose by 2% on Tuesday to close to $US90 a tonne (it’s now up more than 5% in the past few days). BHP Group shares rose 2.3% to $39.91, Rio Tinto climbed 1.9% to $100.32 and Fortescue Metals shares ended up 1.8% at $7.79.
The upbeat market sentiment spread to other stocks such as CSL closed 1.1% higher at $202.36, Wesfarmers 1.3% to $34.92, Macquarie Group 1% to $132.80 and Transurban 1.3% to $13.36.
