The big four banks were all higher, led by market giant Commonwealth Bank, which jumped 2.6 per cent. Westpac (up 1.4 per cent), National Australia Bank (up 1 per cent) and ANZ Bank (up 0.4 per cent) also gained.
Zip Co rose 4.3 per cent after the buy now, pay later business beat market expectations with its latest numbers, which showed its first-quarter earnings had soared by 98 per cent to $62.8 million thanks to much higher revenue in the critical US market, where transactions had grown by more than half from the same quarter last year.
Property stocks were boosted by gains in warehouse and data centre owner Goodman Group (up 0.7 per cent) and shopping centre owner Stockland (up 1.7 per cent), Scentre (up 1.5 per cent) and Vicinity (up 2 per cent). Tech stocks were also higher, helped by a 0.9 per cent gain for WiseTech and a 1.2 per cent rise in Life 360 shares.
Counter-drone company DroneShield fell 2.6 per cent after reporting its third-quarter sales had increased by more than 1000 per cent to $92.9 million. The war in Ukraine “has irreversibly brought drones and counter-drone solutions into [the] mainstream of conflicts”, it told investors.
Car parts retailer Bapcor, which owns the Autobarn chain, plunged 17.7 per cent after it issued a profit warning, citing “unsatisfactory operational practices requiring immediate attention”.
On Wall Street on Friday, a jittery week for US stocks ended on a positive note as the White House soothed anxiety around trade tensions while regional banks rebounded. The S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent, as did the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite. Bonds, gold and silver fell.
Indexes had careened through several jarring swings over the week as worries built about the financial health of America’s small and midsized banks, as well as the souring trade relationship between the US and China.
However, Friday’s bounce sent the S&P 500 to its best week since August, as Trump expressed optimism that talks with Chinese officials could yield an agreement to defuse the tariff spat between the world’s two biggest economies. A batch of solid results from various regional lenders lifted the banking industry after a rout triggered by concern over credit quality in the economy.
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“October has brought a spooky uptick in market swings,” said Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services. “After an extended rally and elevated investor sentiment, markets were vulnerable to negative surprises. We would view deeper pullbacks as opportunities to lean in.”
The White House signalled efforts to calm fears of a full-blown trade war that could have a seismic effect on the global economy. “I think we’re doing very well. I think we’re getting along with China,” Trump said. He also indicated that he believed his planned meeting with President Xi Jinping this month would go ahead.
US bank stocks, meanwhile, stabilised on Friday after several reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts had expected. That helped steady the group, a day after it tumbled on worries about potentially bad loans. Scrutiny is rising on the quality of loans that banks and other lenders have broadly made following last month’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing of First Brands Group, a supplier of aftermarket auto parts.
with AP, AAP and Bloomberg
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