News: WTC Australian shares rise as tech, financials lift sentiment

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose on Monday, led by heavyweight financials, while technology stocks emerged as the top percentage gainers following a chipmaker-fuelled rally on Wall Street last week.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) was up 0.56% at 7,463.30 points, as of 0030 GMT. The benchmark lost 1% last week.

The S&P 500 .SPX posted a record high close on Friday for the first time in two years, fuelled by a rally in U.S. chipmakers and other heavyweight technology stocks on optimism around artificial intelligence.

On the domestic bourse, Australian technology stocks .AXIJ rose as much as 1.1% on Monday, their highest since Sept. 4, 2023.

Sector majors Xero (XRO) and Wisetech Global (WTC) climbed 2% each.

Financials .AXFJ climbed 1%, with the "Big Four" banks rising between 0.7% and 1.3%.

Gold stocks .AXGD rose as much as 0.2%, lifted by a 1.1% jump in shares of Northern Star Resources (NST) .

Bucking the trend, energy stocks .AXEJ edged 0.1% lower as oil prices dipped on Friday on concerns over demand in China.

Heavyweight mining stocks .AXMM slipped 0.1%, with sector majors BHP (BHP) , Rio Tinto (RIO) and Fortescue (FMG) falling between 0.04% and 0.6%.

Shares of Liontown Resources (LTR) fell as much as 25.9% to their lowest level since June 2022 to emerge as the top loser in the benchmark index, after the lithium miner announced a review of the planned expansion of its Kathleen Valley project.

Lynas Rare Earths (LYC) fell as much as 3.4%, their lowest level since July 2021, after its second-quarter revenue fell sharply.

Diversified miner South32 (S32) fell as much as 5.2% and was on track for its worst day in five months on lower-than-expected quarterly coal and manganese output.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) rose 0.3% to 11,699.01.