Australia’s benchmark stock index has extended its winning streak to a second straight session, closing at a fresh all-time high on Tuesday, fueled by surging gold and healthcare shares and growing investor optimism around potential Middle East peace deals. The S&P/ASX 200 climbed 43.80 points, or 0.47%, to settle at 9271.60, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 0.50% to hit 9452.00, marking back-to-back record closes for the country’s primary equities market. Against the U.S. dollar, the Australian dollar edged lower to 70.42 U.S. cents in afternoon trading.
Eight out of the ASX’s 11 major sector groups finished the trading day in positive territory, led by materials and healthcare stocks that delivered the biggest gains to the benchmark index. Among large mining names, BHP added 0.45% to close at $62.82, Fortescue Metals Group jumped 1.43% to $18.45, while Rio Tinto posted a marginal 0.02% loss to settle at $176.30.
Gold producers outperformed nearly every other sub-sector, as growing expectations for a breakthrough in Middle East peace talks pushed down the likelihood of further interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve, lifting global gold prices. Northern Star Resources surged 3.26% to $22.19, Evolution Mining climbed 3.83% to $13.00, and Newmont closed 3.70% higher at $148.83.
Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com, noted that both gold and silver had rallied more than 4% in overnight trading ahead of the ASX session. “This was predominantly sparked by the falling odds of future U.S. rate hikes – the chances of which fell modestly last night following soft private payrolls and services activity data,” Rodda explained. “Gold may be the best expression of U.S. Fed Chairperson’s conviction in getting inflation back to target.”
Healthcare shares also posted robust gains, led by biotech and vaccine giant CSL, which rose 1.30% to $132.26. Sleep and respiratory equipment maker ResMed added 0.29% to $31.48, and pharmaceutical distributor Sigma Healthcare gained 0.34% to close at $2.99. Offsetting these broad gains were minor pullbacks in property, industrial and utilities stocks, which finished the day in negative territory.
Falling global oil prices also supported the upward momentum for Australian equities, as investors priced in a higher probability of a peace deal between the United States and Iran that could reopen the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, a major global chokepoint for oil shipments. Brent Crude prices held steady below $80 per barrel amid these optimistic expectations, according to Vivek Dhar, Commonwealth Bank’s head of commodities and sustainability.
“Reports of a deal between Iran and Oman for a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz also prompted optimism,” Dhar said. “But with Iran cautioning that an Iran-Oman deal doesn’t necessarily lead to an imminent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, energy markets are paying closer attention to progress on the US-Iran front.” Dhar added that an Iran-Oman agreement would resolve a key sticking point that sank earlier U.S.-Iran talks in early July, making any progress particularly meaningful for global energy supplies.
The positive trading day also received a boost from a strong opening to the Australian corporate reporting season, with several major companies posting better-than-expected full-year and half-year results. News Corp, the parent company of this publication, jumped 3.37% to $48.50 after announcing a 15% year-on-year rise in fiscal 2026 segment earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, hitting roughly $1.63 billion U.S. dollars.
Property listings platform REA Group gained 3.43% to $172.03 after reporting a 7% annual rise in revenue to $1.79 billion Australian dollars, with net profit after tax climbing 15% to $650 million when excluding its Indian operations. Financial services firm AMP also jumped 5.96% to $2.31, after revealing a 57% surge in first-half profits and announcing a $150 million share buyback program. The only major laggard among early reporting names was Beach Energy, which slipped 0.56% to $0.88 after posting a 21% fall in full-year underlying net profit after tax to $355 million.