Surprisingly good data on US employment has snapped a four day losing streak on the local share market.
A 21,000 drop in American jobless claims for November buoyed Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its highest close ever, above 16,000 points.
That had encouraged local investors, Options Xpress market analyst Ben Le Brun said.
“We’ve been looking for a circuit breaker in the last four days – we were hoping it was going to be the Chinese manufacturing data,” he said.
“Ironically, it came from the US where the good data was cheered overnight.”
All sectors of the local market have posted gains, with industrials leading the pack.
Engineering group Monadelphous added 83 cents, or five per cent, to $17.45, and Seven Group had gained 32 cents, or 4.4 per cent, at $7.64.
Qantas was another good performer, adding 4.5 cents, or four per cent, to $1.17.
Among the banks, Westpac lifted 54 cents to $32.83, ANZ gained 22.5 cents at $31.685, Commonwealth Bank jumped 61 cents to $76.71 and National Australia Bank was 36 cents higher at $34.06.
In mining, BHP Billiton was 15.5 cents higher at $37.715, Rio Tinto had improved 49 cents to $65.31 and Fortescue Metals firmed five cents to $5.80.
But gold miner Newcrest lost three cents to $8.67 as gold fell to a four month low.
KEY FACTS
* At 1200 AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 55.2 points, or 1.04 per cent, at 5,343.5 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 53.6 points, or 1.01 per cent, at 5,337.9 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was up 56 points to 5,357 points, with 11,857 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 538 million securities worth $1.1 billion.