AGK AGL Australia Ltd

0010 GMT [Dow Jones] Australia's S&P/ASX 200 is up 0.5% at 5399.6 after hitting a fresh five-year high of 5402.4 following similar gains on Wall Street after disappointing U.S. jobs data fuelled expectations of sustained bond buying by the Fed. "Ongoing monetary stimulus is a positive for world equity valuations," CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner says. "For Australian investors it means not only a strong lead from U.S. markets but also a greater chance of further rate cuts by the RBA as they respond to the possibility that the Aussie dollar will remain high." The materials and financials sectors are mostly outperforming with BHP (BHP.AU), Rio Tinto (RIO.AU) and Fortescue (FMG.AU) up 1.1%-1.7% and ANZ (ANZ.AU), NAB (NAB.AU) and Macquarie (MQG.AU) up 0.4%-1.0%. QBE (QBE.AU) is down 1% after AUD/USD hit a four-month high overnight as the U.S. dollar fell. AGL (AGK.AU) is down 2.5% on a profit warning. Focus turns to domestic CPI data at 0030 GMT. (david.rogers1@wsj.com)

 
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