Investors are redirecting money once bound for Wall Street and fast-growing Silicon Valley tech giants back towards the Australian sharemarket as intense volatility in the United States turns the ASX into a safe haven.

Despite a drop on Friday taking the S&P/ASX 200’s falls this year to 6.3 per cent, the local benchmark has performed far better than Wall Street, where the S&P 500 is down more than 10 per cent and the Nasdaq some 15 per cent.