Australia: Shares end higher on tech, Wall Street boost

[SYDNEY] Australian shares on Friday flitted in and out of negative territory, but turned positive to end the week higher, with local tech stocks taking cues from an upbeat Wall Street session on signs of a pick-up in US job growth this month.

The benchmark ASX 200 index closed 0.2 per cent higher at 7030.3 points, and delivered a weekly gain of 0.23 per cent.

"We saw a rise in the Nasdaq last night in the US so that's helping our market today," Henry Jennings, a senior analyst at Marcustoday Financial Newsletter said.

Wall Street snapped three straight sessions of losses overnight, helped by technology stocks, as the smallest weekly jobless claims since the start of a pandemic-driven recession boosted sentiment.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we reverted the engines next week and saw tech stocks under some pressure and everyone rushing back to commodity stocks again," he added.

Kogan.com, down nearly 14 per cent, was the worst performer in the benchmark index after the online retailer posted downbeat annual outlook, while EML Payments was the top gainer with a nearly 16 per cent climb.

EML was also top gainer in the tech index, which rose 1.6 per cent.

Banking stocks were flat, although three of the "Big Four" banks were trading in the black. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which lost about 0.5 per cent, weighed in the index.

"I think there's a little bit of profit-taking in some of the banks and (investors) taking some money off the table before the weekend," Mr Jennings said.

In New Zealand, the NZX 50 index inched 0.2 per cent higher to 12,459.61 points.

REUTERS