The Australian market posted a gain on Friday despite cooling off in the afternoon as mining and banking stocks relished the weak U.S. dollar that's sparked commodity and oil rises from a cautious U.S. Federal Reserve.
At the close on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 14.9 points, or 0.29 per cent, higher at 5,183.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 12.9 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 5, 239.3. Commodity trade has been benefitting from the headwinds to the U.S. dollar, seeing a sizeable de-risking in equity and credit markets, IG chief market strategist Chris Weston told Xinhua.
Oil prices are increasing, which could boost headline inflation, asset prices are up and financial conditions have improved in the wake of unexpectedly dovish U.S. Federal Reserve policy statement on Thursday. "It's a stimulus to most global markets to be fair," Weston said. While central banks won't be enjoying their own currencies strengthening, the weakening U.S. dollar has removed one of the major concerns that saw selling in January and February.
The market did cool off late in the session. However, this can be attributed to traders taking well earned profits. At the close on Friday, ANZ was up 0.73 percent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia bounced 1.01 percent, the National Australia Bank added 0.60 percent, and Westpac slipped 0.03 percent. BHP Billiton surged 4.68 percent, rival Rio Tinto gained 0.96 percent and gold miner Newcrest dropped 1.25 percent.
Santos lifted 1.75 percent, Woodside Petroleum was 1.69 percent stronger and Oil Search fell 1.13 percent. Wesfarmers was 0.63 percent higher, and Woolworths lost 0.18 percent. Qantas shed 2.67 percent while Telstra fell 0.76 percent in the wake of its third service blackout overnight.
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