AMP drops 13.4% after profit drop U.S retail sales improve...

	  AMP drops 13.4% after profit drop 

	  U.S retail sales improve sentiment 

	  Newcrest rebuffs $16.9 bln takeover offer 

(Updates to close)

Australian shares ended higher on Thursday, led by gains in technology shares, as investors bet against inflationary pressures and rising interest rates post better-than-expected U.S. retail sales data.

The S&P/ASX 200 index (xjo) rose 0.8% to close at 7,410.3 points. The benchmark jumped 1.1% on Wednesday.

U.S. retail sales rebounded sharply in January after two straight monthly declines, on the back of purchases of motor vehicles and other goods, pointing to the economy's continued resilience despite higher borrowing costs.

"I am thinking inflation is definitely going to be headed down and I base that on the lower oil price, which is a tax on everything," said Brad Smoling, Managing director at Smoling Stockbroking.

In Australia, technology stocks .AXIJ jumped 2.7% while healthcare companies .AXHJ and real estate stocks .AXRE added 1.0% and 2.2%, respectively.

Shares in Orora (ORA) and Sonic Healthcare (SHL) topped gains on the ASX200 after posting upbeat results.

National Australia Bank (NAB) on Thursday posted a 19% jump in first-quarter cash profit helped by rising interest rates. The bank's shares closed up 0.7%, but the broader financials sub-index marginally declined.

Leading losses on the main index was wealth manager AMP (AMP) after it posted a fall of around 34% in annual underlying profit. Shares closed down 13.4%.

Miners .AXMM jumped 0.2% on the back of a rebound in iron-ore prices.

Gold producer Newcrest Mining (NCM) slipped 1.6% as it rebuffed Newmont Corp's NEM.N $16.9 billion takeover bid. The gold miner logged profit that surged past analyst expectations and paid out a special dividend.

Coal miners Yancoal Australia (YAL) and Whitehaven (WHC) slipped after saying they will set aside thousands of tonnes of coal for use by domestic power generators for 15 months under the New South Wales state government's latest coal reservation policy.

Power producer Origin Energy (ORG) ended the day 3.4% after its earnings missed analyst estimates.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (nz50) lifted 0.6% to 12,157.75 points at end of trade.