The Australian sharemarket seesawed on Friday as a rally in mining stocks was offset by losses across the real estate, technology, and retail sectors.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose above the psychological barrier of 8600 points in the opening minutes of trading, but closed down 9.1 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 8580.1. That extended the benchmark’s weekly decline to 0.3 per cent.

The pullback was sparked by Trump telling NBC News on Friday that he plans to impose blanket levies of 15 per cent or 20 per cent on most trading partners, above the current rate of 10 per cent. He also threatened a 35 per cent duty on Canadian goods.

Materials stocks were the only bright spot on Friday as iron ore futures in Singapore rallied to a two-month high near $US100 a tonne. Rio Tinto rose 2.3 per cent to $111.10, BHP firmed 2.8 per cent to $39.36, and Fortescue added 2.9 per cent to $16.98.

“We’ve had a pretty hawkish week of tariff headlines – there’s still a lot of uncertainty out there, which is making it hard to get a firm grip above that 8600 mark,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.

“But it was about time the miners did some heavy-lifting. I’m not surprised given the Chinese CPI data was of a better ilk – it suggests some of those stimulus measures may be helping to break that consumer deflationary spiral we’ve been in the last few months.”

Rare earth stocks also surged after the US Department of Defence agreed to take a 15 per cent stake in US producer MP Materials, rocketing its shares 50 per cent higher. On the ASX, Lynas rallied 16.7 per cent to $9.67 and Iluka Resources jumped 22.9 per cent to $4.89.

The real estate sector was the biggest laggard on Friday after gaining in previous sessions. Goodman Group fell 1.8 per cent to $33.74, GPT dropped 1.4 per cent to $5.01 and Scentre Group lost 1.3 per cent to $3.70.

Tech stocks were also hit by heightened tariff concerns, with Xero easing 1.5 per cent to $173.83, TechnologyOne falling 2.5 per cent to $39.49, and Life360 declining 1.5 per cent to $32.30.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, Johns Lyng leapt 22.6 per cent to $3.90 after agreeing to sell itself to Pacific Equity Partners in a deal that values the building services business at $1.3 billion.

Lithium producer IGO firmed 1.8 per cent to $4.60 on news the company will withdraw from its Fraser Range joint venture with Carawine Resources, which fell 2.1 per cent 9.5¢.

Ventia Services dropped 1.9 per cent to $5.12 despite announcing it had secured an amendment to its new fibre upgrade contract with NBN, which is expected to add $280 million in revenue over the next three to four years.

And Australian Strategic Minerals jumped 8.4 per cent to 58¢ after it released a scoping study that removes more than $900 million in costs from its Dubbo project.

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