Oct 7 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose on Thursday after two...

Oct 7 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose on Thursday after two straight sessions of falls, although energy stocks limited the recovery led by banks and healthcare companies as crude oil prices retreated from multi-year highs.

The benchmark ASX 200 index (xjo) was up 0.2% at 7,223.8, as of 0058 GMT, after rising as much as 0.7% to 7,259.20 earlier in the day.

Heavyweight banks .AXFJ climbed 0.7%, led by a 2.9% rise in Janus Henderson Group PLC (JHG) and a 2.3% gain in Hub24 Ltd (HUB) .

Westpac Banking Corp (WBC) , National Australia Bank (NAB) , and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) advanced between 0.3% and 1.1%.

Healthcare firms .AXHJ were the second-biggest boost to the benchmark index with a rise of more than 1%. CSL Ltd (CSL) and Sonic Healthcare (SHL) jumped 1% and 4.2%, respectively.

Tech stocks .AXIJ advanced 1.7% and were on track for a second consecutive session of gain, with buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) giant Afterpay (APT) adding 2.6%.

Openpay Group (OPY) jumped 12.9% and was headed for its best session since June 22 after securing a $271 million debt funding ahead of the launch of its BNPL services in the United States.

Gold stocks .AXGD gained 1.3% as bullion prices ticked up overnight on the back of a retreat in U.S. Treasury yields. Dacian Gold Ltd (DCN) jumped 5.1%, while ASX-listed AngloGold Ashanti Ltd (AGG) gained 3.8%.

Energy stocks .AXEJ fell 1.6% after oil prices dropped nearly 2% on Wednesday. Woodside Petroleum (WPL) slipped 2.2%, while Beach Energy Ltd (BPT) lost 3.9%.

Meanwhile, Wall Street ended higher overnight as investors grew more optimistic that congressional leaders could reach a deal to avert a government debt default.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) was down 0.3% at 13,166.4. Elsewhere, S&P 500 E-minis futures EScv1 were up 0.27%.​