Australian stock market continues bullish streak and ends Friday at a record high

Australia’s top 200 stocks set a new all-time high on Friday, smashing the previous record set only a month ago and delivering another boost to superannuation balances. The benchmark ASX200 closed the trading day at a record 7745.60 after gaining 46.90 points, or 0.6 per cent, beating the former closing record of 7699.4 set on February 2. Investors had been expecting big things from the market on Friday after the bourse inched closer to a record high 7698.7 on Thursday after closing at 7698.7, a 0.5 per cent jump. The market made a strong start with gains among miners, IT and discretionary companies in the first 30 minutes of trade on Friday pushing the index to almost 7730 — comfortably beating Thursday’s intraday record high of 7703.8. Its previous record was also set on February 2. Almost all sectors in the index ended the day in the green, with the exception of health care, telecommunications and consumer discretionary stocks. Life 360 was the biggest gainer of the day, ending Friday up by about 38 per cent, followed by Core Lithium which ended the day up more than 14 per cent. Sayona Mining was also one of the top performers, ending the session higher by 12.5 per cent. Recently-merged Arcadium Lithium was another strong performer, as was Nickel Industries. The benchmark index is up 1.64 per cent year-to-date, driven by strong performances across tech and consumer discretionary stocks. Finance stocks, which includes the Big Four banks have also been performing well. Materials, or mining stocks, are down 8.91 per cent for the year. The leap also follows solid gains among US stocks overnight. The S&P500 was lifted by share market juggernaut Nvidia and other technology stocks linked to AI, while investors assessed inflation data and comments by Federal Reserve officials on when the central bank might begin cutting interest rates. Heavyweight chipmaker Nvidia climbed 1.9 per cent, while smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices surged over 7 per cent. Those and other technology companies have been at the heart of a Wall Street rally in recent months, fuelled by optimism about artificial intelligence. Dell Technologies, which sells AI-optimised servers made with Nvidia’s high-end processors, rose 1.2 per cent ahead of its report after the bell. More broadly it comes after a busy half-yearly earnings season for Australian companies. CommSec chief economist Craig James said it had been a “mixed” season and that expectations ahead of updates from Australian corporates had been “low and ultraconservative”, suggesting the market could be breathing a sigh of relief now that it’s over. “Now in context, the earnings season hasn’t been a barn burner,” he said. “By no means have companies been downbeat. Many companies have highlighted their ability to ride out the period punctuated by higher interest rates, cost of living ‘crisis’, inflation and geopolitical uncertainty,” Mr James said. He noted Australian interest rates “looked to have peaked”. The performance spells good news for the $3.5 trillion held in Australian superannuation accounts.