The Australian sharemarket climbed on Thursday, extending its longest winning streak in more than a month, as investors digested one of the busiest days of the corporate earnings calendar.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index added 79.20 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 9086.20, finishing short of its record close in October. It earlier touched 9118.30 which was an intraday record.

Equity investors appeared to shrug off the jobs data, which showed unemployment held at 4.1 per cent. This was better than expectations for a tick up to 4.2 per cent. Bond traders have now priced in another interest rate increase from the Reserve Bank in June.

Price action on the ASX is being dominated by the higher oil price and one of the busiest days for earnings results this month.

Global X investment strategist Marc Jocum said a strong mix of corporate earnings momentum and resilient macroeconomic data fuelled sentiment with over 70 per cent of stocks in the green underpinned by the major banks.

“Rising interest rate expectations following January’s jobs numbers provided a clear tailwind for bank net interest margins,” he said.

Jocum said that this reporting season had been particularly volatile with more than half of ASX 200 stocks moving more than 5 per cent on the day of their results.

The banks pushed the total return for the financials this month past 8 per cent on Thursday as Westpac rose 2.7 per cent to $41.89, National Australia Bank 2.4 per cent to $48.28, ANZ 2.1 per cent to $40.07, and Commonwealth Bank 0.7 per cent to $178.19.

Medibank Private bucked the trend, falling 5.6 per cent to $4.52 as the insurer’s underlying profit of $298 million missed expectations due to weaker private health insurance results and higher acquisition and lease interest expenses.

Energy was the strongest after oil prices rose the most since October to above $US70 per barrel after media reports triggered concern about a US-Iran military conflict. Woodside Energy rose 4.5 per cent to $27.10, Santos 5.6 per cent to $7, and Beach Energy 2.7 per cent to $1.13.

Materials stocks also rebounded from a bout of profit-taking, led by BHP, which firmed 1.8 per cent to $53.23, and Rio Tinto, up by 2 per cent to $168.55 before its results were published after the close.

Wesfarmers weighed on consumer discretionary, falling 5.6 per cent to $84.24 on concerns about its second half outlook. Compounding the negative sentiment was Lovisa, which dived 12.8 per cent to $27.04 as statutory results fell short of market expectations, despite underlying earnings beating consensus.

Stocks in focus

Hub24 surged 14.2 per cent to $98.45 after its profit of $68 million, up 60 per cent year-on-year, came in 9 to 13 per cent ahead of consensus.

Zip Co crashed 34.4 per cent to $1.85 as cash EBTDA of $124 million fell short of expectations and activity in the US slowed.

Sonic Healthcare rallied 9.9 per cent to $23.34 as the pathology giant reported better than expected activity in Australia and Germany, and reaffirmed its earnings guidance.

Telstra gained 3.6 per cent to $5.14 after the telco bumped up its share buyback to $1.25 billion and delivered a 9.4 per cent rise in interim net profit to $1.1 billion. The group narrowed its underlying earnings guidance to between $8.2 billion and $8.4 billion.

IPH advanced 12.7 per cent to $3.81 following a 10.5 per cent rise in net profit to $41.2 million for the first half, as growth in Canada and Asia offset softer conditions in Australia and New Zealand.

Lifestyle Communities dived 7.1 per cent to $5.33 after its profit fell to $15.8 million for the first half, as lower new home settlements and reduced deferred management fee revenue weighed.

NRW Holdings rocketed 8.7 per cent to $6.12 as it upgraded its full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation guidance to a range of $275 million to $285 million.