Australian shares rose on Tuesday, pulled up by Wall Street gains amid optimism about the US earnings season.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.8% or 65.6 points to close at 8,318.40.
The S&P 500 reached a record high, led by a rise in the shares of Nvidia and supported by solid earnings reports from major firms, Reuters reported.
On the domestic front, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) said in a survey that household spending in Australia declined in September as consumers withheld from spending the extra cash received from income tax cuts, with the CommBank Household Spending Insights Index dropping 0.7% to 146.7 in September.
Meanwhile, consumer confidence in Australia was largely steady between Oct. 7 and 13, with the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence index down 0.1 points to 83.4 points.
In corporate news, shares of payment service providers Tyro Payments (ASX:TYO) and Smartpay Holdings (ASX:SMP, NZE:SPY) declined 11% and 18%, respectively, at market close after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission received AU$2.1 million of new funding from the Australian government to tackle "unfair and excessive card surcharges."
The government said it is ready to ban debit card surcharges starting Jan. 1, 2026, subject to consultation by the Reserve Bank of Australia. It is also eyeing to reduce other payment fees.
Shares of Hub 24 (ASX:HUB) reached an all-time high earlier in the day when the investment monitoring and portfolio management platform said that total funds under administration reached AU$112.97 billion in the first quarter ended Sept. 30, a 37% surge on the year-ago period. Its shares rose 3% at market close.
Telstra Group (ASX:TLS) maintained its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) guidance of AU$8.5 million to AU$8.7 billion for the fiscal 2025 after achieving three years of underlying EBITDA growth. The telecom company's shares closed marginally higher.
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