The Australian market has built on early gains with all sectors in the black, mainly due to a positive earnings season.
CMC Markets chief analyst Michael McCarthy said Australian market’s solid rise on Friday was mostly because the earnings season had been better than expected.
He also said local investors had realised that emerging markets varied and that many of them that were not performing well had high exposures to commodity prices.
“It’s another good day for Australia investors,” he said.
“We’ve shaken off the global wobbles of last week and we’re getting a more sophisticated view of emerging markets and the fact that they’re not all alike.
“Also, more importantly, in Australia we’re getting a modestly good reporting season and that’s driving a lot of the action.”
While all sectors of the markets were in positive territory, industrial materials were doing particularly well.
At 1145 AEDT home building products maker James Hardie had jumped 41.5 cents, or 3.15 per cent, to $13.605, fertiliser and explosives producer Incitec Pivot had gained 11 cents, or 3.74 per cent, to $3.05 and chemicals producer Orica had added 44 cents, or 2.3 per cent to $24.47.
The mining giants were also performing well.
BHP Billiton had surged 44.5 cents, or 1.19 per cent, to $37.765, Rio Tinto had gained 50 cents, or 0.74 per cent, to $68.33 and Fortescue had jumped six cents, or 1.07 per cent, to $5.68.
The major banks also gained.
Commonwealth Bank was up nine cents, or 0.12 per cent, to $75.84, ANZ had put on 14 cents, or 0.45 per cent, to $31.13, Westpac had added 14 cents, or 0.43 per cent, to $32.58 and National Australia Bank had gained 14 cents, or 0.41 per cent, to $34.15.
KEY FACTS
* At 1145 AEDT on Friday the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index had climbed 37.5 points, or 0.71 per cent, to 5,345.6 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 37 points, or 0.70 per cent, at 5,355.7 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was 38 points higher at 5,301, with 12,819 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 633.5 million securities worth $1.3 billion.
