Australian shares climbed 96 points, or 1.1%, to 8,818 in early Friday trade, snapping two sessions of losses and hitting a five-week high. The rebound followed an overnight recovery on Wall Street, where tech stocks steadied after a recent sell-off.
In China, Australia’s largest trading partner, PBoC Governor Pan Gongsheng reaffirmed a moderately loose policy stance, signaling ongoing support for economic growth while emphasizing the need to safeguard financial stability. Domestically, an unexpected decline in September employment reduced expectations of further interest rate hikes from the RBA.
Upside momentum was limited by investor caution ahead of next week’s release of China’s Q3 GDP data. Still, nearly all sectors advanced, led by commercial services, non-energy minerals, manufacturing, and logistics. The big four banks staged a strong rally, gaining between 1.9% and 3.3%.
Among individual names, Maggie Beer Holdings rose 3.6% after abandoning plans to sell its hampers business, while Woolworths jumped 4.3%. QBE Insurance added 2.7%, and Computershare climbed 2.2%. For the week, the market is on track for a third consecutive weekly gain, up nearly 1% so far.