The Australian sharemarket held on to its gains at midday Monday after a disappointing trading session of Friday that plunged the local bourse to three-month-lows, after higher-than-expected inflation in the United States rattled investors.
Digital marketplace company Car Group, formerly Carsales, saw its shares gain 3.5 per cent and Pilbara Minerals shares lifted 3 per cent to round out the top-three advancers. Newmont , Meridian Energy and Whitehaven Coal were the weakest large-cap stocks.On Wall Street Friday, more gains by the shares of Google parent Alphabet and software giant Microsoft propelled the market to its best week since November.The S&P 500 Index rallied 1 per cent to finish its first winning week in the past four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153 points, or 0.4 per cent, and the technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index surged 2 per cent.
Microsoft also reported stronger profit and revenue than the consensus estimates of analysts, sparking a 1.8 per cent jump in its shares. The company cited strong growth in its cloud-computing business for the impetus as it rolls out artificial intelligence technology to its customers.