Australian shares closed stronger, buoyed by record highs on Wall Street and investor hopes the local earnings season won’t be as bad as initially feared.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 0.99 per cent to 5,720.6 points on Friday, with gains across the board with the exception of property trusts and gold stocks.
The local market has risen 1.7 per cent over the past week.
Morgans senior private client advisor Bill Chatterton said the market tracked the US higher, where Wall Street got a boost after President Donald Trump vowed to make a “phenomenal” tax announcement within the next three weeks..
“The Trump factor of being very pro-business continues to have a positive impact on the US market,” Mr Chatterton said.
While only a handful of Australian companies have lodged their their financial results, there is a growing confidence that this earnings reporting season “won’t be too bad”, he said.
“There’s a bit of a sigh of relief, and when you have a sigh of relief you get institutional fund mangers particularly, who get twitchy that they’re going to miss the next move up. So they go in boots and all.”
Investors piled into energy, resource, financial, retailers and health care stocks.
Woodside Petroluem rose 13 cents to $31.52, Origin Energy gained 12 cents to $7.22 and Santos added 10 cents to $3.91.
Miners Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue rose between one and 1.9 per cent.
Investment bank Macquarie Bank was the big winner in the financial space, closing $1.50, or 1.8 per cent, higher at $85.09.
The nation’s four big banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and National Australia Bank, all finished higher.
Media giant News Corp’s shares jumped $1.13, or 6.9 per cent, to $17.53 after reporting its second quarter earnings rose 16 per cent to $US325 million.
News also reported an operating loss due to writedowns at its Australian newspaper and pay-TV businesses.
Online real estate classified company REA Group – which is majority owned by News Corp – fell 69 cents to $53.47, despite reporting a six per cent rise in first-half profit after tax from core operations.
CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner blamed the share price fall on profit takers.
Gold miners including Newcrest Mining, Evolution Mining and Regis Resources fell between 1.7 and 3.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar was trading at 76.40 US cents at 1700 AEDT, up slightly from 76.26 US cents on Thursday.
The Aussie has ended the week slightly lower following some choppy sessions on the back of President Trump’s comments on the direction of US policy.
ON THE ASX:
* On Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 56 points, or 0.99 per cent, at 5,720.6 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 53.9 points, or 0.94 per cent, at 5,771.6 points.
* The March futures contract was up 57 points, or 1 per cent, at 5,667 points with 31,418 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 3.4 billion securities traded worth $5.6 billion.
CURRENCY UPDATE AT 1700 AEDT:
* 76.40 US cents, from 76.26 US cents at Thursday’s close.
* 86.87 Japanese yen, from 85.56 yen
* 71.72 euro cents, from 71.40
* 61.13 British pence, from 60.98 pence
* 106.30 New Zealand cents, from 105.88 NZ cents
GOLD:
The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1700 AEDT was $US1,224.17 per fine ounce, down $U16.73 from $US1,240.90 on Thursday.
BOND SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEDT:
* CGS 5.25 per cent March 2019, 1.819pct, from 1.781pct on Thursday
* CGS 4.25pct April 2026, 2.637pct, from 2.582pct
Sydney Futures Exchange prices:
* March 2017 10-year bond futures contract at 97.275 (implying a yield of 2.725pct), down from 97.330 (2.670pct) on Thursday
* March 2017 3-year bond futures contract at 98.040 (1.960pct), down from 98.090 (1.910pct).
(*Currency closes taken at 1700 AEDT previous local session, bond market closes taken at 1630 AEDT previous local session)
