Australia's share market has scraped together a meagre improvement after green shoots of optimism on Iran and AI amounted to little for stock prices.
The S&P/ASX200 advanced 25.9 points on Tuesday, up 0.3 per cent, to 8,757.8, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 31.9 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 8,951.
"It's a bit of a lukewarm market, to be honest," Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda said.
"One that can climb again if we get some of these macro risks out of the way, but we'll probably struggle to outperform global counterparts still, just because the fundamentals are not quite as strong."
Energy stocks were heavy as oil prices eased on reports the US and Iran could be looking to revive peace talks and end their nearly seven-month conflict, while miners improved on the back of continued copper price strength and improving risk sentiment.
Gold stocks were a mixed bag, as the precious metal retreated over the session to $US4,314 ($A6,059) an ounce, as the tighter US interest rate outlook and stronger greenback weighed on the spot price.
Shares in Gina Rinehart-backed Global Lithium rocketed by almost 50 per cent after agreeing to a $333 million acquisition deal by Abu Dhabi-headquartered Titan Lithium Group.
Financials edged lower, with ANZ the only big four bank to improve, as Commonwealth Bank shares slipped 0.4 per cent to $152.33.
Local tech stocks outperformed the market, soaring 2.7 per cent after Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a fresh record overnight, after Meta's Muse AI assistant revived confidence in the AI trade.
Shares in NextDC jumped 3.8 per cent while cloud services and data centre provider Megaport rallied 4.3 per cent.
The broader narrative also breathed some life into beaten-down uranium stocks, with Boss Energy, Bannerman and Deep Yellow notching gains above three per cent.
Consumer discretionary stocks also bounced, up 1.3 per cent to lock in their best session since late July with strong performances from Aristocrat and Lights & Wonder.
In company news, QBE appointed Pacific business head Johnathan Groves as its new Asia Pacific chief executive.
Dan Murphy's owner Endeavour appointed former REA Group CFO Owen Wilson as an independent non-executive director.
The Australian dollar is buying 71.18 US cents, down from 71.28 US cents on Monday at 5pm AEST.
ON THE ASX:
* The S&P/ASX200 rose 25.9 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 8,757.8
* The broader All Ordinaries gained 31.9 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 8,951
One Australian dollar trades for:
* 71.18 US cents, from 71.28 US cents at 5pm AEST on Monday
* 112.19 Japanese yen, from 111.97 Japanese yen
* 62.09 euro cents, from 62.12 euro cents
* 52.23 British pence, from 53.29 pence
* 123.93 NZ cents, from 124.63 NZ cents
