Market Wrap / bouncing back

The S&P/ASX 200 bounced back during Thursday's trade, following a few sessions of losses. Its 0.30% gain to 8,828.30 points was supported by the materials sector, coupled with positive trading updates from a raft of companies.

With bullion prices edging up, the gold miners were in the green and Northern Star advanced by 2.8%. Meanwhile, market heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto also tracked higher, despite a slight setback in iron ore prices. 

The banks painted a more contrasting picture however, with NAB dropping by 3.4%. It saw its earnings fall amid higher expenses and credit impairment charges, while full-year cash profit was flat. 

And James Hardie tumbled by 13.5% with the company saying they may have been affected by the public announcement on Bloomberg saying that CDIs have been deleted from the MSCI Australia Indexes.

In company news, Light & Wonder flashed green, rising 8.2% as it reported a 25% increased in adjusted profit for the September quarter. Amcor was 5.2% higher following an increase in its September quarter dividend to 13 cents a share. Elsewhere, Vicinity Centres added 2.9%, affirming the outlook for the retail sector in Australia is "increasingly positive".

More earnings results are due tomorrow, including REA and its majority-holder NewsCorp.