The battered Australian share market rallied on Monday, rising more than 5% as investors gained confidence from the government's emergency plan to protect the nation's banking system from a global financial meltdown.
At the 1615 AEDT close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 220
points, or 5.55%, at 4180.7, while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 202.4 points, or 5.14%, to 4141.9.
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a three-point plan that includes guaranteeing bank deposits for three years.
Despite the New Zealand Government announcing similar measures, the benchmark index fell almost 1% on Monday.
The NZX 50 was down 22 points, or 0.82%, to 2782 on turnover of $75 million.
At the close, Telecom slid 8 cents to $2.48, Contact Energy fell 15c to $7.05 and Fletcher Building was down 1c to $5.85.
Sky City Entertainment Group was down 2c to $2.91, while Auckland Airport was fell 3c to $1.67.
At 5.20pm on Monday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 59.55 US cents, 90.16 Australian, 35.15 pence, 59.82 yen and 0.4423 euro. The Trade Weighted Index stood at 59.55.
Asian shares outside of Japan were up 5% on Monday. The Nikkei in Tokyo, which lost 24% of its value last week, was closed for a public holiday.
