ASX gains 0.49 per cent at Friday’s close, after consumer discretionary and mining sectors given boost

The Australian sharemarket is going into the long weekend on a high, after it recorded its best week of 2024.

The Australian sharemarket has marked a two-week high after recording its best week of 2024.

The S & P/ASX200 finished the week on a high, gaining 0.49 per cent, or 38.2 points, to 7860 at the close before the King’s Birthday long weekend.

The Australian sharemarket finished strong at the end of the week. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

While the broader All Ordinaries gained 0.48 per cent to 8112.8 points.

On the local benchmark, 10 of the 11 industry sectors finished in the green, with consumer discretionary seeing a 1.2 per cent rise and mining also seeing the second biggest boost with 0.8 per cent.

Iron ore also gained 0.4 per cent.

Only tech finished in the red, down by 0.1 per cent.

Nuix fell 6.02 per cent, and PointsBet dropped 2.80 per cent.

The top performing stocks were IDP Education Ltd and Boss Energy Ltd, up 6.1 per cent and 4.04 per cent respectively.

Wesfarmers also added 1.3 per cent.

Over the last five days, the index has gained 2.06 per cent.

“It was a good (week) for the sharemarket which was lifted by strong performances from overseas indexes,” Sky News Business Reporter Ed Boyd said.

“The banking sector was the top performer which was CBA on a record high.”

CBA rises 0.6 per cent higher to $125.55 per share at the close.

Meanwhile, GrainCorp was one of the best improvers for the week, gaining 11.4 per cent after the government forecast predicted a bumper winter crop in the months to come.

Liontown saw the biggest fall, declining 10.8 per cent.

The ASX has seen a two week high. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

On Friday, RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser said while other central banks had moved to cut rates earlier, Australia, like other economies, had faced similar struggles in taming inflationary pressures.

“We all have the same fundamental challenge, which is that inflation has been sticky on the way down, in particular services prices inflation,” Mr Hauser said during his first public remarks since his appointment to the position in November.

The Australian dollar finished higher, buying US66.72 c against the greenback at 4.30pm.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S & P500 remained flat at 5352 points while the tech-dominated Nasdaq dipped 0.1 per cent.