The Australian share market opened higher on Friday with the healthcare and financial sectors among the best early performers after shrugging off a choppy Wall Street session and subdued oil prices.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index climbed 37.4 points, or 0.66%, to 5,695.1 at 1030 AEDT on Friday, while the broader All Ordinaries is up 34.5 points, or 0.6%, to 5,771.2.
A flat open looked to be on the cards with US stocks mostly down overnight on mounting worries of slowing global growth, and tensions over the arrest and potential extradition of a Huawei Technologies executive to the US.
Instead, the local market jumped, with the big banks in the black early.
National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) was the best performer of the big four, up 1.21% to $24.23, followed by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) with a 1.17% jump to $25.97.
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) was up 2.17% to $114.48 and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) rose 0.44% to $69.98.
Beleaguered wealth manager IOOF Holdings Limited (ASX: IFL) was a rare spot of red on the benchmark, dropping nearly 30% to $5.17 after the prudential regulator moved to disqualify its top brass and impose new license conditions following allegations of wrongdoing.
Biotech giant CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) rose 1.69% to $182.265 to lift the healthcare sector, also supported by gains for ResMed Inc. (ASX: RMD), Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) and Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC).
BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX: BSL) led the gains for the miners, up 1.52% to $12.03 despite industrial metals taking a hit overnight.
Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) was up 0.66% to $72.69, while BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) was flat at $31.38.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG), and South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) rose 0.74% and 0.66% while the gold miners continued to climb on near five-month highs for the yellow metal.
Adelaide Brighton Ltd. (ASX: ABC) was down 7.88% to $4.735 after it downgraded its earnings forecast.
Shares in consumer staples and discretionaries were up, as were the energy and tech sectors.
with AAP
