SYDNEY: Australian shares rose 0.7 percent in morning trade on Friday, as mostly upbeat earnings out of the United States and encouraging bond auctions in Europe bolstered sentiment across the board.
"It looks like the better news out of Europe is really casting a bit of a magic spell over the market at the moment," said Michael Heffernan, senior client adviser and strategist Austock Group.
"There's been several days in a row where we've seen increases in the indices, particularly over there in Europe and also good results out of the U.S and that's firing our markets," he added.
Miners were among strong performers in morning trade.
Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton were up over 0.6 percent and Iluka Resources also rose, up 3.5 percent to a two month high, boosted by London copper prices extending gains to four month highs overnight.
Australia's major banks also rose, with Westpac the best performer up 0.8 percent to A$20.76 after announcing plans to issue an Australian dollar covered bond in the near future.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Commonwealth Bank of Australia both rose over 0.3 percent.
Woolworths bucked the trend, falling 0.6 percent in morning trade.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 28 points at 4,242.8 by 0019 GMT. The benchmark slipped 3.1 points or 0.1 percent to 4,214.8 on Thursday.
New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.3 percent to 3,274.2 points in early trade.
The benchmark is on track to gain more than 1 percent for the week and is up almost 5 percent so far for 2012.
"We are getting near the end of January, all the stars are aligning for a good year because as that old saying goes 'As Janurary goes, so the year goes'," said Heffernan.
STOCKS ON THE MOVE
Shares in Nexus Energy soared 12.5 percent after the company announced on Thursday it will form a joint venture with oil major Royal Dutch Shell and Osaka Gas to develop its Crux field in Western Australia's Browse Basin.
Woodside Petroleum clawed back most of Thursday's losses to rise 1.5 percent in morning trade to A$33.98, after December quarter production fell 6 percent and it maintained its forecast for production of between 73 million and 81 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2012.
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