The Australian sharemarket notched its second record high of the week on Friday, capping the bourse’s best month since July.

The S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.5 per cent, or 38.6 points higher at 8532.3 – its largest weekly gain in five weeks. The index rose 4.6 per cent over January.

Miners rose early in the session after US President Donald Trump reiterated plans to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canada and Mexico as soon as Saturday, but remained vague on China, in welcome news for Australia’s largest trading partner. Mining heavyweight BHP climbed 1.2 per cent to $1.19.

Mining stocks were further buoyed by gold prices, which rose to a record high at $US2796 an ounce. Newmont leapt 3.8 per cent to $69.20, De Grey Mining 3.3 per cent to $2.01 and Bellevue Gold 3.7 per cent to $1.25.

A positive first few hours of trade for Nasdaq futures helped spur a rally for ASX-listed technology stocks on Friday afternoon. Futures for the tech-heavy US index were 0.5 per cent higher leading into Wall Street’s final session of the week. On the ASX, Xero rose 2.5 per cent to $183.27 and Technology One added 1.6 per cent to $30.94.

In real estate, index heavyweight Goodman Group lifted 1.4 per cent to $36.45, rebounding from a sell-off earlier this week sparked by concerns that Chinese artificial intelligence competitor DeepSeek threatened demand for Goodman’s data centre holdings.

Stocks in focus

Origin Energy weighed on the utilities sector, tumbling 6.7 per cent to $10.45 after the company trimmed its production outlook for Australia-Pacific liquid natural gas in FY25.

PointsBet tumbled 12.8 per cent to 86¢ after the betting company revised down its financial year guidance, citing worse-than-expected quarterly performance.

Infrastructure group Lendlease rose 2 per cent to $6.50 after announcing plans to sell its Capella Capital business to Sojitz Corporation in a $235 million deal.

Finally, Magellan Financial Group tumbled more than 7.6 per cent to $10.51, extending losses from the previous session after the exit of its veteran infrastructure boss, Gerald Stack.

Home designer Simonds Group shares rose by a third to 20¢ on Friday after the company agreed to pay $10 million to buy Melbourne-based Dennis Family Homes.