AU Evening Wrap: Australia Shares Rise 1.65% in Largest Gain Since December

Energy was the only one of the ASX's 11 sectors to finish lower, slipping 0.3% amid oil-stock weakness.

Nomura research analysts have identified several signs of weakness in Australia's latest labor force report, and they expect more softness ahead. Although job growth over the past three months is up 2.8% from a year earlier, the growth is skewed towards part-time employment, with hours worked up only 0.6% over the same period. In terms of ABS trend data, part-time employment represents 31% of the workforce but accounted for 76% of the 355,000 jobs created in the last year.

Nomura analysts Andrew Ticehurst and David Seif noted that sub-trend GDP growth over the past few quarters, as well as leading indicators such as ANZ job ads and the NAB survey, suggest that employment growth will ease in the coming months. They expect unemployment to trend up through the year, given the current economic conditions.

Chinese property developers' stocks have surged in the wake of government initiatives aimed at reviving the struggling real-estate sector. The government's move to buy up excess housing and use it for public housing, as well as encouraging state-owned enterprises to participate in a housing trade-in program, has fueled expectations of a market revival, leading to a surge in property developers' shares.

Officials in Hangzhou announced that they would purchase private residential units in a district with a surplus of homes and use them for public housing, contributing to the positive market sentiment. Similar plans were also announced in the city of Dali. These moves follow other recent initiatives, including Nanjing's assistance in renovating or purchasing homes for public housing.