News: Australia shares soar as markets do surprise U-turn after Trump win

Australian shares soared three percent in early trade on Thursday, the biggest one-day jump in five years, after Wall Street surprisingly rose on Donald Trump's victory in a bitter U.S. presidential election.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) ricocheted 2.95 percent or 152.144 points, to 5,308.700 by 1205 GMT after a tumultous day on Wednesday where it ended 1.9 percent lower, in its biggest fall since the Brexit vote in June. New Zealand (nz50) stocks also rebounded.

Despite months of warnings that a Trump White House would create uncertainty, U.S. investors embraced Trump's victory and his plans to rebuild American infrastructure and pledge to double U.S. economic growth.

"It is quite clear that the markets had a rethink on the economic impact of the Republican presidency in the U.S.," said Michael McCarthy chief market strategist at CMC Markets.

"Anything that stimulates the U.S. economy is likely to affect industrial commodities and given the still historically low level of prices in industrial metals like copper and energy markets, the potential is for increased economic growth to flow through to industrial commodities."

Copper surged to a 15-month high on Wednesday, dragging other metals along, on investor speculation that the Trump presidency will boost demand for metals.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, said the Wall Street rebound was based on the investor belief that the Republican President-elect's policies are better for economic growth in the short-term than Clinton's would have been.

The CBOE Volatility index <.VIX> fell 23 percent and was on track for its biggest daily drop since late June.

Miners swept gains in the benchmark index, on track for its biggest percentage gain since October 2011.

Shares of mining giants, BHP Billition (BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO) soared as much as 9.84 percent and 9.36 percent respectively, their highest intra-day gain in over seven years.

Financial stocks also rallied, with the "Big 4" banks gaining around 3 percent with Westpac Banking Corp (WBC) taking the lead at 3.7 percent. S&P ASX 200 Financials Index .AXFJ rose 3.7 percent, copying the U.S. financial market.

Bucking the trend, gold stocks took a beating as safe-haven stocks were not pursued after Trump struck a conciliatory tone in his victory speech. The ASX All Ordinaries Gold Index .AXGD plunged 6 percent.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) was up 179.570 points,or 2.68 percent, at 6,843.350 as of 1009 GMT.

The index showed its biggest intra-day gain since January, 2012, helped by a decision by the Central Bank to cut its interest rate to a record low of 1.75 percent.

Healthcare stocks and Industrial stocks dominated the market where Fisher and Paykel Health Corporation climbed 5 percent (FPH) and Auckland International Airport (AIA) rose 1.5 percent.