THE sharemarket rose the most in seven sessions after commodities and offshore equities saw some recovery from recent weakness caused by China's disappointing economic growth data, the collapse in gold prices and the Boston bombings. Resources, however, fell.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed up 1.1 per cent at 5004.6 after hitting an intraday high of 5006.1.
All sectors apart from materials and energy tracked a 1.4 per cent gain in the S&P 500 that followed a 2.3 per cent tumble the day before.
The Australian dollar was little changed in Asian trading. At 5pm AEST it was buying $US1.0363, down US0.09c.
Cyclical stocks including Macquarie, Brambles and News Corporation rose between 1.2 per cent and 3.1 per cent. News owns The Australian and Dow Jones Newswires.
But most of the strength was in defensive and high-yield stocks. Telstra surged 2.8 per cent to $4.82, its highest closing level since June 2008.
Supermarket owners Woolworths and Wesfarmers rose 2.4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively, blood-products maker CSL jumped 2 per cent, property trusts including Westfield Holdings, Goodman Group, Stockland and GPT Group rose 1.7-2 per cent, and casino operator Crown rallied 2.7 per cent.
