The Australian share market has bounced from a seven-week low after US President Donald Trump postponed new strikes on Iran.
At midday on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 66.7 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 8,572.0, while the broader All Ordinaries had climbed 66.9 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 8,802.3.
In Washington, Mr Trump said he had shelved plans for a "scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow" after appeals from the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Domestically, consumer sentiment has ticked up as a spike in fuel prices eased, according to two long-running surveys conducted by ANZ and Westpac that were released separately on Tuesday, but overall consumers remained deeply pessimistic.
Nine of the ASX's 11 sectors were higher at midday, with materials and technology both a little more than one per cent.
Consumer staples were the biggest gainer, rising 3.5 per cent on strong gains by the supermarket giants.
Woolworths had climbed 4.5 per cent and Coles had advanced 3.2 per cent.
In the financial sector, all of the big retail banks were in the green.
CBA had climbed 1.4 per cent, Westpac had added 1.6 per cent, NAB had grown 1.7 per cent and ANZ was up 1.3 per cent.
Insurance companies were performing even better, with QBE advancing 3.8 per cent and IAG up 2.4 per cent.
The heavyweight mining/materials sector was a different story.
BHP lost 1.5 per cent, Fortescue declined 0.9 per cent and Rio Tinto was down 1.4 per cent.
In the communications sector, Singaporean mobile phone operator Tuas was up 23.8 per cent, clawing back some of Monday's 62.8 per cent plunge that followed word its Simba subsidiary may have been using unauthorised radio frequency bands.
In tech, Technology One was down 3.8 per cent after the software company delivered a half-year profit after tax of $66.8 million, up six per cent from a year ago.
The Australian dollar was trading for 71.42 US cents, from 71.27 US cents at 5pm on Monday.
