Despite some profit-taking in miners, the Australian share market finished up on Friday, capping off a nice winning streak.
By the close of trade on Friday, gains by banks and technology stocks overwhelmed profit-taking in miners, resulting in the ASX 200 jumping 0.5%, or 42.90 points, to 8903.90.
That meant the market was up 1.6% for the week after rising for five days in a row, marking the longest stretch of gains since an eight-session rise in May 2025, and the highest level reached since late October.
Tech shares shine
Technology was one of the stronger sectors after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing forecasted revenue growth of close to 30% in 2026. That beat analyst estimates and eased concerns about weakness in AI-related demand, pushing up local tech stocks such as NextDC (ASX: NXT) by 3.5% to $13 and Life360 (ASX: 360) by 1.7% to $29.23.
The big banks also played their part in the rally, with Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) and ANZ (ASX: ANZ) both rising 0.5% to $154.30 and $37.52 respectively.
Shares in National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) also rose 0.7% to $42.67, while shares in Westpac (ASX: WBC) rose 1.8% to $39.19, and Macquarie (ASX: MQG) shares were up 2.6% to $211.86.
Miners down a little after strong week
After some strong gains in line with rising commodity prices, shares in the big miners experienced a day of profit-taking as investors locked in some profits.
BHP shares (ASX: BHP) fell 0.8% to $48.99 after they had risen more than 6% for the week alone after copper and metals prices continued to rise.
Once again, US President Donald Trump moved parts of the market with his softening rhetoric about intervening in Iran, pushing down oil prices.
Like night follows day, that led to a fall in energy stocks, with Woodside (ASX: WDS) down 1.4% to $23.68, and Santos shares (ASX: STO) falling 1.6% to $6.23.
Good news leads to strong gains
There were some predictable reactions to company news, with shares in Capstone Copper (ASX: CSC) leaping 7.1% to $15.63 after it met ambitious annual copper guidance of 224,764 tonnes, which was a company record.
Shares in Catalyst Metals (ASX: CYL) also climbed by an impressive 14.7% to $9 after it reached record quarterly production at Plutonic and received lots of positive reviews from brokers.
Heading in the opposite direction were shares in Novonix (ASX: NVX), which fell 15.8% to 42.5¢ after delaying the start of mass production of anode material for Panasonic Energy to the second half of 2027, instead of this year.
The week ahead
Locally, the December labour force survey, released on Thursday, will dominate, with economists expecting employment to have grown by about 35,000 in the month of December.
That would still leave the unemployment rate steady at 4.3% despite an expected lift in the participation rate.
This survey follows on from the unexpected loss of 21,300 jobs in November.
In the US a Thursday update on the US Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation will be keenly watched with the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index set to increase by 2.8% compared to a year ago.
There is a range of Chinese numbers set to be released, including home prices, employment, retail spending, industrial production, and fixed asset investment, but the most-watched figures will be China’s fourth-quarter economic growth release, which is expected to show annual gross domestic product (GDP) expanding by 4.9% in the calendar year 2025, roughly in line with the government’s full-year target of around 5% growth.
Also making news in Australia will be a string of quarterly mining and energy company sales and production updates, including BHP, Evolution Mining, Beach Energy, Lynas Rare Earths, Paladin Energy, Northern Star Resources, Sandfire Resources, Santos, South32, Fortescue, and Alcoa.
On Wall Street, there will be a string of fourth-quarter earnings results from companies such as 3M, Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, GE Aerospace, Procter & Gamble, and Intel.
