At midday AEDT on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 81.5 points, or 1.15 per cent, to 7,154.7, while the broader All Ordinaries was 80 points higher, or 1.1 per cent, at 7,365.1.
The rally comes off the back of a 0.46 per cent gain last week and a strong finish from Wall Street on Friday, after dovish comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell hinted a possible end to rate rises in the US.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.8 per cent while the S&P500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq both closed 0.6 per cent higher to cap the fifth consecutive weekly gain for all three indexes.
Nine of the 11 official ASX sectors were higher at noon, with only energy and utilities stocks in the red.
Origin dropped 3.3 per cent to $7.91 with traders anticipating shareholders to sink a long-running takeover bid by a Brookfield-led private equity consortium on Monday afternoon.
The energy giant's share price has fallen 7.6 per cent since it said it was unlikely the $20 billion bid would reach the 75 per cent approval required to succeed after Origin's largest shareholder, AustralianSuper, opposed the deal.
Oil and gas producers Woodside and Santos dropped 1.3 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively as the Brent Crude price struggles to break $US80 a barrel.
The heavyweight miners drove the index higher with BHP up 2.4 per cent, Rio Tinto climbing 2.2 per cent and Fortescue 0.5 gaining per cent.
Goldminers Northern Star and Evolution soared 3.6 and 3.8 per cent respectively.
The Big Four banks made solid gains. CBA rose 1.2 per cent, ANZ firmed 0.4 per cent and NAB and Westpac were both 0.8 per cent higher.
IGA owner Metcash jumped 2.5 per cent to $3.64 after unveiling a 12.2 per cent profit boost for the first half of the financial year, helped by a 5.7 per cent increase in food sales despite economic headwinds.
"Foot traffic into stores increased, but items per basket decreased reflecting cost of living pressures on household grocery budgets," Metcash chief executive Doug Jones said.
All eyes this week will be on Wednesday's fourth quarter GDP data release, with no surprises expected from the Reserve Bank's last board meeting of the year, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.
"Last week's cooler-than-expected monthly CPI indicator should see the RBA keep rates on hold in December," he said, with the market pricing in a near-zero chance of a rate rise on Tuesday.
"However sticky 'homegrown' services inflation will ensure a tightening bias is retained with a rate hike in February hinging on the outcome of the December quarter inflation due for release in late January."
The Australian dollar climbed to a four-month high against its US counterpart, buying 66.80 US cents, up from 66.12 US cents at Friday's ASX close.
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