The Australian sharemarket defied offshore caution but early gains were halved as profit taking hit miners on fading global reflation hopes.
Wall Street stocks closed flat last night on rising geopolitical risks, but after opening slightly negative, the S&P/ASX 200 index ramped 0.6 per cent to a fresh two-year.
However, the index dropped back and closed up 16.4 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 5929.3 as BHP Billiton retreated from yesterdays knee-jerk rally high on activist investor calls for it to hive off oil assets.
Global concerns over rising US tensions with Syria and North Korea weighed on sentiment and drove buying of safe-haven assets and the US dollar.
The Australian dollar was US0.2¢ firmer at US75¢ and government 10-year yields fell 4…
Read the full article at: https://thewest.com.au/business/markets/aussie-sharemarket-closes-firmer-again-but-off-highs-ng-b88443581z