Local blue chips have gone into the Easter Break back in the green. The ASX 200 was up 44.4 points to 7,523.4 at close of trade.

The ASX followed the lead of Wall Street overnight, which rallied and broke this week’s losing streak.All major stock market indexes finishing higher. The S&P 500 was up 1.12%, the Dow by 1.01%, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 2.03%.

By sector, large cap gold stocks outperformed, while the ASX 200 indexes for tech stocks, energy companies and the resources sector all posted a gain of more than 1%.

The ASX 200 financials index lagged the bank, in a lacklustre session for the big banks.

In news this afternoon, Australia’s unemployment rate has remained at 4% in March, despite ~18,000 jobs being added to the economy during the month. It’s the lowest level since monthly job numbers were first collated in the late 1970s.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap
NST Northern Star 11.44 4% 7,520,530 $12,793,085,918
QAN Qantas Airways 5.45 7% 16,985,805 $9,599,967,513
YAL Yancoal Aust Ltd 5.47 7% 667,575 $6,721,036,734
FLT Flight Centre Travel 21.18 5% 3,352,415 $4,028,905,845
CTD Corp Travel Limited 24.86 5% 508,034 $3,439,566,191
PDN Paladin Energy Ltd 0.965 6% 39,311,884 $2,690,820,558
WEB Webjet Limited 5.85 8% 4,260,946 $2,069,973,415
MP1 Megaport Limited 12.58 5% 710,145 $1,900,126,662
DEG De Grey Mining 1.355 5% 6,179,195 $1,817,408,147
SMR Stanmore Resources 1.92 4% 1,784,739 $1,663,049,233
TLX Telix Pharmaceutical 4.67 5% 562,819 $1,392,614,484
CXL Calix Limited 8.94 6% 468,550 $1,362,704,803
FFX Firefinch Ltd 1.12 5% 10,325,115 $1,258,024,030
SBM St Barbara Limited 1.53 4% 7,211,264 $1,195,051,435
SWM Seven West Media Ltd 0.68 5% 2,544,638 $1,033,576,855
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Positive moves in the ASX 200 were punctuated by solid gains for the listed large cap cohort of travel stocks.

Travel booking platform Webjet (ASX:WEB) led the pack with a gain of more than 7%, followed closely by the national airline, Qantas (ASX:QAN).

Also rising strongly were Flight Centre (ASX:FLT) and Corporate Travel Management (ASX:CTD).

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code Company Last %Change Volume Market cap
Z1P Zip Co Ltd. 1.23 -5% 13,006,333 $883,988,967
NWH NRW Holdings Limited 2.07 -3% 1,936,654 $961,274,154
RFF Rural Funds Group 3.05 -1% 1,268,056 $1,180,330,232
GMA Genworth Mortgage 2.96 -3% 536,231 $1,222,304,340
IMU Imugene Limited 0.215 -2% 11,041,365 $1,286,573,825
HGH Heartland Group 2.14 -1% 3,710 $1,286,601,289
OCL Objective Corp 17.31 -5% 17,897 $1,733,793,563
INA Ingenia Group 4.8 -3% 2,162,400 $2,025,688,822
SYA Sayona Mining Ltd 0.34 -4% 51,952,907 $2,536,619,522
NHC New Hope Corporation 3.56 -5% 12,740,985 $3,104,691,916
DOW Downer EDI Limited 5.44 -2% 3,911,000 $3,769,517,084
BOQ Bank of Queensland. 7.99 -6% 17,398,409 $5,481,596,232
MEZ Meridian Energy 4.37 -2% 92,578 $5,602,757,812
BEN Bendigo and Adelaide 10.25 -2% 1,459,840 $5,932,575,191
CHC Charter Hall Group 15.59 -2% 1,544,611 $7,525,385,436
LYC Lynas Rare Earths 9.39 -1% 5,261,445 $8,599,982,110
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The Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) posted its biggest daily loss since 2020, as the market reacted to a lower than expected interim dividend payout.

BoQ shares were down ~6% to $8.02, although CEO George Frazis tried to talk up the bank’s future prospects.

Essentially, the bank doesn’t appear to be earning a good return on capital, particularly the $1.3 billion acquisition of ME Bank, which was finalised mid 2021.