FOR much of the week, sentiment played off the warming relationship between the US and China, culminating in the two trading gestures of goodwill.

Markets have also taken to heart the more accommodative central bank moves to combat flagging economic growth and hopes that the US Federal Reserve will do so next week.

On Friday, local equities were also lifted by the European Central Bank (ECB) announcing a fresh round of economic stimulus and with it a rate cut that takes the depo rate to -0.5 per cent, an all-time low.