Positive opens are expected Friday for the New Zealand and Australia sharemarkets. Wall Street provides another positive lead, having added to the Dow's 250-plus point gain of Wednesday.
New Zealand's sharemarket posted its second straight gain on Thursday. At the close, the benchmark NZX-50 index was at 3,082.5, a gain of 5.38 points or 0.2 percent.
The NZ Stock Exchange reported trading volume of 45.9 million shares valued at NZ$84.8 million.
Among the session's most heavily traded issues, Auckland International Airport closed up NZ$0.01, Air NZ was up .02, Fletcher Building was up .07, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was unchanged, F & P Healthcare was up .06, Infratil was up .03, NZ Oil & Gas was up .02, the NZ Stock Exchange was down .01, Ryman Healthcare was up .01, SkyCity Entertainment was unchanged and Telecom Corp of NZ was down .02.
For the Australia-NZ dual-listed stocks, AMP was up .03, Australia and NZ Bank was up .29, Westpac Bank was up .30, Telstra was up .02 and Kathmandu Holdings was down .02.
Across the Tasman, Australia's share market joined the rally, closing solidly higher.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index added 37.0 points or 0.8 percent to close at 4.532.7 and the broader All Ordinaries index was up 36.2 points or 0.8 percent at 4,583.0.
Trading volume hit 2.2 billion shares valued at A$5.2 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners 654 to 416 with 369 unchanged.
Resources stocks were again leaders of the rally. Among the major players, miner BHP Billiton closed up A$0.41 and rival Rio Tinto was up .88. Woodside Petroleum was p .33, Oil Search was up a penny and Santos was down .23.
In the financial sector, Australia and NZ Bank was up .29, Commonwealth Bank of Australia added .61, National Australia Bank gained .26 and Westpac Bank was up .30. Investment bank Macquarie Group was down .40.
The retail sector was also strong, with Woolworths closing up .24, Wesfarmers up .57, David Jones up .17 and JB Hi-Fi up .35. Harvey Norman declined one cent.
In overseas trading, Wall Street added to its big gains of Wednesday with another strong performance on Thursday as traders await Friday's key employment report from the U.S. Labor Department.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 50.63 points or 0.49 percent at 10,320.10, the Nasdaq Composite index was up 23.17 points or 1.06 percent at 2,200.01 and the S & P 500 index was up 9.81 points or 0.91 percent at 1,090.10.
All of the other major Asia/Pacific region markets except Indonesia's closed higher on Thursday.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 average gained 135.82 points or 1.52 percent to close at 9,062.84.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 245.09 points or 1.19 percent at 20,868.92.
China's Shanghai Composite index was up 32.89 points or 1.25 percent at 2,655.78.
In India, the BSE 30/SENSEX index rose 32.44 points or 0.18 percent to 20,868.92.
The Jakarta Composite index in Indonesia was down 13.17 points or 0.42 percent at 3,122.15.
South Korea's KOSPI/Seoul Composite index was up 11.04 points or 0.63 percent at 1,775.73.
The Taiwan Weighted Index was up 52.57 points or 0.69 percent at 7,720.82.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.