On Friday's trade, the All Ordinaries finished up 12.25 points or 0.21 per cent.  

Newcrest Mining announced that it has invested a further US$40m in the London AIM-listed company SolGold PLC, following a US$41.2m capital raising by SolGold.

Together with the investment communicated to the market on October 27, 2016, the company holds 14.54% of the issued equity. SolGold's principal asset is an 85% interest in the Cascabel project located in Ecuador, which is in the exploration phase. 

Westpac followed ANZ’s move two weeks ago by raising variable rates on its interest-only loans by 0.34 percentage points, as it attempts to slow down riskier interest only loans to stay within regulatory limits.

The lender also announced a drop in variable rates on principal and interest home loans by 0.08 percentage points from June 30.

Westpac Consumer Bank chief executive George Frazis said the move was not a response to the federal government's bank levy, but to ensure interest-only lending remained within the limit imposed in March by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. 

Shares in Australia's big four banks have fallen after credit rating agency Moody's cut their long-term credit ratings due to risks associated with the local housing market and high household debt levels. Increasing property prices, primarily in Melbourne and Sydney, have been filled by historically low interest rates and increasing debt levels.

Smaller banks were also downgraded including Members Equity Bank Limited, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and Credit Union Australia Limited.

At the close of weekly trading, the gold price finished at $1,256.40 per ounce, the WTI oil price traded at $43.01 a barrel, and the Australian dollar was worth US $0.7568.   

In the US on Friday night, the Dow Jones finished down 2.53 points to end the week at 21,394.76. The Share Price Index (SPI) finished up 3.8 points.