The sharemarket posted its best weekly gain this year on Friday after supermarket stocks pushed the bourse into positive territory, which offset wider losses.

The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2 per cent, or by 13.2 points, to 7932.10. The index posted a weekly gain for the first time in four weeks, rising 1.7 per cent. Six of the 11 sectors were higher, led by consumer staples. The All Ordinaries lifted 0.1 cent.

Traders piled in to Woolworths and Coles after the competition regulator published a long-awaited report, which found they were some of the most profitable supermarket retailers in the world and uncovered little evidence of price gouging. Woolworths rallied 6.3 per cent to $29.93 and Coles 4.9 per cent to $19.46.

Those gains initially tussled with wider losses across the bourse as traders remained cautious about the impact of Donald Trump’s punitive tariff regime on inflation and growth.

The ASX swung between gains and losses, advancing as much as 0.5 per cent in the afternoon before paring some of that advance. Still, US policymakers provided equities with some reprieve this week, downplaying the risk of tariff-driven inflation and not altering their interest rate forecasts.

Mining stocks posted losses after President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers to increase US production of critical minerals, which could include coal, and become less reliant on imports from China.

Coal miner Yancoal fell 1.9 per cent to $5.20 and Whitehaven dropped 2.8 per cent to $5.72. South32 retreated 2.5 per cent to $3.53 and Pilbara Minerals shed 5.1 per cent to $1.85.

Iron ore futures in Singapore slipped below $US100 a tonne.

The risk-off mood also sparked profit-taking in the healthcare and technology sectors. Medical imaging software provider Pro Medicus fell 6.5 per cent to $223.58 and pharmaceutical giant Sigma Healthcare dipped 1.4 per cent to $2.87. NextDC dropped 1.2 per cent to $13.05.

Stocks in focus

Paladin Energy fell 4 per cent to $6.56 after temporarily closing its Langer Heinrich Mine in Namibia, owing to heavy rains impacting access to the site.

Emerald Resources dropped 3.9 per cent to $4 after quarterly output from its Okvau gold mine missed its guidance range.

Premier Investments added 3.9 per cent to $21.85 after its subsidiary Peter Alexander’s sales hit a record $297.7 million in the first half, and the retailer downplayed its 12.8 per cent fall in interim profit, citing the challenging consumer environment.

And a rally in Nanosonics lost steam after JPMorgan cut its recommendation on the manufacturer of disinfector devices from “neutral” to “underweight”. The stock edged up 0.8 per cent to $5.02, extending its 14 per cent gain in the prior session.