The sharemarket notched its best day in six weeks after Wall Street rallied and a bout of optimism pushed banks and consumer-facing stocks higher in afternoon trading.

The S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2 per cent, or by 90.6 points to 7918.9, its best intraday gain since 6 Februrary. The All Ordinaries rose 1.2 per cent. Nine of 11 sectors were in the green, buoyed by technology stocks.

ASX shares extended gains throughout the session after a surprise fall in Australian jobs boosted hopes for a May interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank. Money markets are now pricing in a 78 per cent chance of a reduction, up from 66 per cent. That was after the labour market shed 52,800 jobs in February, undercutting expectations, and the unemployment rate held steady.

Shares opened the session on a positive note after US policymakers held the federal funds rate, in line with forecasts, and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell downplayed the risk of tariff-driven reinflation. That drove the S&P 500 Index up 1.1 per cent as tech stocks surged. Tesla added 4.7 per cent and bitcoin topped $US85,000.

Optimism spilled on to the local bourse as Australian technology stocks, banks and consumer stocks climbed higher. WiseTech added 2.5 per cent to $$84.89 and TechnologyOne added 3 per cent, closing at $28.50. Among banks, Commonwealth Bank advanced 2.2 per cent to $145.93 and Macquarie 3.8 per cent to $201.79. NAB gained 1.4 per cent, to $33.09, despite Morgan Stanley downgrading the bank to “equal weight”.

VanEck portfolio manager Cameron McCormack cautioned Thursday’s market was “sentiment driven” and gains could be short-lived, with markets still sensitive developments in the US’ punitive tariff regime. “If you look at year-to-date performance, a lot of it has been sentiment-driven. We are seeing uncertainty transposed on to equity markets and until we have more clarity, I feel we’re going to see more frequent bouts of movement both up and down,” he said.

Property stocks, which can be sensitive to interest rate movements, posted notable gains: Goodman Group advanced 2.8 per cent to $31.59 and Scentre rose 2.5 per cent to $3.31.

Elsewhere, miners fell as iron ore held losses, trading just above the crucial $US100 a tonne mark. Fortescue retreated 3.3 per cent to $15.94 despite Jarden Securities upgrading the stock to “neutral”. BHP shed 1.1 per cent to $39.13.

Stocks on the move

In corporate news, Nanosonics rallied 14 per cent to $4.98 after US regulators approved its tool designed to clean endoscopes used in hospitals and reduce infection risk.

Arafura Rare Earths rose 2.7 per cent to 19¢ after entering a five-year deal to supply 100 tonnes per year of neodymium-praseodymium oxide to Luxembourg-headquartered mining group Traxys.

Cleanaway Waste Management lifted 2 per cent to $2.60 after announcing it will Contract Resources for $377 million in a deal it said will deliver about $12 million in annual net cost synergies.

NRW Holdings rose 3.2 per cent to $2.88 after subsidiary Primero Group bagged a 12-month contract worth $100 million for procurement and construction works at Rio Tinto’s Dampier seawater desalination project.

And TPG Telecom rallied 5.9 per cent to $4.82 after the competition watchdog gave the $5.25 billion sale of its fibre networks to Vocus Group the green light.