Australian shares rose on Friday, helped by mining and energy names on the back of strong underlying commodity prices, while buy-now-pay-later stocks fell after a US agency sought data on business practices from five companies in the sector.
The S&P/ASX 200 firmed 0.7% to 7,343.8 by 0213 GMT after a three-session losing streak but was down 0.2% for the week.
Energy stocks jumped as much as 2.3%, marking their best intraday session since Dec. 7, after crude oil prices jumped overnight.
Whitehaven Coal led gains on the sub-index with a 4.6% rise, followed by a 2.8% climb in Ampol.
Miners gained as much as 1.9% on strong iron ore prices. Global miner BHP added 1.4%, while iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group rose 1.2%.
Gold stocks advanced as much as 5.2%, tracking an overnight jump in bullion prices. The index was set for its best session since November 2020, with Alkane Resources rising about 20.5%.
The buy-now-pay-later sector came under pressure after the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asked Affirm, Afterpay, PayPal, Zip and Klarna for information on their business practices, saying it was concerned about user debt, regulatory arbitrage and data harvesting.
Afterpay dropped 9.2% to its lowest level since October 2020 and Zip Co tumbled about 9% to its weakest level since May 2020, dragging down the tech sector.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index erased early gains to fall 0.2% to 12758.05 by 0213 GMT.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.