On Friday's trade the All Ordinaries finished down 37.16 points. On Monday, Amcor announced an agreement to acquire Alusa, the largest flexible packaging business in South America. The business has four plants and a broad range of capabilities.

AMC added 29 cents on the news and finished the trading week on $15.13.  

On Tuesday, Rio Tinto announced the extension of the Channar Mining JV with Sinosteel Corporation. Work continued on the Nammuldi Incremental Tonnes project, which delivers high grade, low phosphorous ore into the Pilbara Blend.

During the quarter, Rio Tinto completed the divestment of the Bengalla coal mine and the restructure of the coal and Allied group, and announced the sale of the Mount Pleasant coal project.

RIO added 184 cents on the news and ended the week on $51.00. 

On Thursday, Wesfarmers reported strong March quarter sales results across its Coles, Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks businesses.

Although sales at Target rose 2.3 per cent to $678 billion due to an early Easter, adjusted comparable store sales dipped 0.8 per cent. WES shares climbed 2.8 percent on the news and closed at $41.82. 

Highlands Pacific has been advised operations at the Ramu Nickel process plant near Madang in Papua New Guinea will be suspended for the duration of an investigation into a plant worker’s death. 

The plant shutdown will effect nickel production in the current year, however the extent of the effects will not be known until the length of the shutdown is clarified and any required rectification work is completed. HIG closed at $0.078. 

At the close of weekly trading, the gold price finished at $1230 an ounce, the WTI oil price traded at $43.73 a barrel, and the Australian dollar was worth US $0.77.  

In the US on Friday night, the Dow Jones finished up 21.23 points to end the week at 18,003.75. This result has caused the Share Price Index (SPI) to move up 26 points to 5236.00, which should lead to a slightly positive start to Monday’s trading.