Australian shares showed small gains when the market closed on Friday as strength in energy and other stocks helped to offset the lingering effects of a flat night on Wall Street.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 12.2 points or 0.15% to 8,360.90 points after ranging between 8,339.6 and 8,380.6 points as six of the 11 sub-sectors finished in the green, led by energy, information technology and real estate investment trusts (REITs).
The brought the market benchmark’s gains over the last five days to 0.28%, this year to 2.57% and over the last 12 months to 6.63%, leaving it 2.88% short of its 52-week high.
The top performing stocks were uranium producers Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) and Deep Yellow (ASX: DYL), which surged 12.54% and 8.26% respectively.
Among the large capitalisation stocks that helped lift the energy sector by 1.16% were Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) which rose 0.56%, Santos (ASX: STO), which added 0.47% and Ampol (ASX: ALD), which finished 1.03% higher.
The ASX benchmark got little inspiration from Wall Street where stock indices closed virtually flat on Thursday (Friday AEST) as early losses were recouped after bond yields came off their highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.35 points to 41,859.09, the S&P 500 index dipped 2.60 points or 0.04% to 5,842.01 and the technology-based Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) rose 53.09 points or 0.28% to 18,925.74.
But in trading after the closing bell U.S. stock futures traded higher on Thursday night (Friday AEST) in the wake of a retreat by bond yields from high levels that worried investors, providing a positive tone for Asia Pacific equities markets.
The Australian dollar continued its trend over the last month of strengthening against the US dollar, trading at US$0.6431 at 4.50pm AEST (6.50am GMT), up 0.35% on the day.
In the fixed interest market, yields rose on 10-year and two-year Australian Government bonds by 0.47% and 0.06% to 4.690% and 3.398% respectively by 4.50pm AEST.
