The Australian share market has ended the week on a record high

The Australian share market jumped to end on a high on Friday, following a choppy week of trading. The S&P/ASX 200 closed up 70.8 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 8393.8 points on Friday, with all industry sectors except tech in the green. The broader All Ordinaries rose by 66.10 points, or 0.77 per cent, to close at 8633.10. The Australian dollar fell 0.4 per cent to 64.89 US cents. Australia’s market followed a strong lead from Wall Street overnight, where the S & P 500 index closed up 0.7 per cent, the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite ended 0.1 per cent higher and the Dow Jones rose more than 1 per cent. Friday’s bounce follows a mixed week for the ASX. On Tuesday stocks unexpectedly jumped 0.9 per cent only to fall back during Wednesday and Thursday trading. AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the trading patterns throughout the week were normal trading patterns following a rapid rise in shares like markets saw on Tuesday. “It is often the case when the market goes to a new high, investors take it as a time to sell, then of course new buyers come in and push the market back up,” ” Mr Oliver said. “When the market goes up and makes new highs and it’s narrowly based that can often be a worry, but what we are seeing on the Australian market is a broad based gain. “You can argue in the US it is narrowly based and around tech and if something goes wrong then investors tend to question the broader market.” The energy sector leads broadbased gains off the back of higher oil prices overnight, although the trend for the commodity continues to trade downwards over the last few months. The energy sector was up 2.30 per cent and 4.32 per cent for the past five days. Other leading sectors include utilities, health care, materials, industrials and property. CBA is up 1.79 per cent for another record high. “The ongoing enthusiasm for CBA contributed the most to the overall ASX gains,” Mr Oliver said. The overall strongest performer on the ASX 200 was A2 Milk which soared 14.13 per cent after flagging an inaugural dividend would be coming in February 2025. Uranium shares traded higher with Deep Yellow Limited up 6.30 per cent while Paladin Energy rose 5.94 per cent as the second and third strongest shares on the ASX. Only the information technology sector was down, led by WiseTech global, which dropped 11.92 per cent following a less than favourable outlook that came out of the company’s annual general meeting. Fellow tech stocks Megaport and Audinate group were also among the top 5 most traded stocks on the ASX 200, falling 9.45 and 5.47 per cent respectively.