Banks, miners pull the ASX 200 higher on Friday

A bounce in banking stocks and a leap from the major miners helped push the local market higher on Friday, as Wall Street hit another record high overnight on fresh prospects of interest rate cuts.

The benchmark ASX 200 closed up 59.90 points on Friday or 0.68 per cent to 8,864.90 while the broader All Ordinaries gained 57.20 points or 0.63 per cent to 9,128.60.

Australia’s dollar slipped 0.15 per cent to 66.55 against the greenback, but remains above the key 66 US cent mark.

On an overall positive day, seven of the 11 sectors finished higher with materials, property, financials and healthcare stocks all lifting the market higher.

CBA shares gained 1.31 per cent to $169.97, NAB finished 1.21 per cent higher to $43.54, Westpac jumped 1.40 per cent to $38.48 and ANZ traded in the green up 1.07 per cent to $33.19.

The recovery in bank shares follows a volatile week with the sector falling on a number of job losses.

It was a similar story for the healthcare sector which reversed losses from earlier in the week.

CSL gained 0.98 per cent to $207.82, Cochlear finished 0.73 per cent higher to $298.45 and ResMed eked out a gain of 0.29 per cent to $41.25.

Materials also finished higher on the price of iron ore with BHP added 1.34 per cent to $40.81, Fortescue gained 0.86 per cent to $18.80 and Rio Tinto increased 1.05 per cent to $115.44.

Gold also continued its massive run higher, passing $US3700 and is now up 30 per cent in just the last 12 months.

“Gold prices rose to another new record high on a combination of expectations for more Fed rate cuts and a weaker US dollar and on the back of demand for a hedge against public debt worries,” AMP chief economist and head of investment strategy Shane Oliver said.

Northern Star Resources gained 1.58 per cent to $21.20, Evolution Mining jumped 2.06 per cent to $9.90 and Newmont Corporation finished 2.22 per cent higher at $119.85.

Energy stocks continued to weigh on the market, with the price of fuel continuing to fall on OPEC+ plan to the amount of oil in the system, adding to fears of oversupply of the precious commodity.

Woodside energy slumped 3.39 per cent to $24.22, Santos fell 2.19 per cent to $7.59 and Karoon dropped 2.74 per cent to $1.59.

Australia’s market followed a strong lead in from Wall Street overnight with all three indices hitting record high thanks to a weak consumer inflation reading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 617.08 points, or 1.36 per cent to 46,108.00, while the S&P 500 gained up 0.85 per cent to 6,587.47 and the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.72 per cent to 22,043.07.

US investors are not anticipating a rate cut next week.

Overall, markets are pricing in three interest rate cuts.

Principal Asset Management market strategist Magdalena Ocampo said the CPI report was slightly hotter than expected in a sign that tariff-related price pressures are starting to hit consumers.

“However, the increase in consumer prices was not large enough to shift the Fed’s focus away from recent labour market demand weakness and effectively seals the rate cut next week,” Ms Ocampo said.

In company news, investors continued to react to defence Ventia Services, Downer EDI and Service stream after the trio announced $7.35bn worth of defence contracts announced on Thursday.

Ventia shares soared 5.57 per cent to $5.31, Downer EDI added 1.82 per cent to $7.26 and Service Stream slipped 0.43 per cent to $2.31 after surging 15 per cent on Thursday.