On Friday's trade, the All Ordinaries finished up 8.82 points or 0.15 per cent. 

On Monday, Cochlear (COH) launched a number of products at the AGM including the Kanso Sound Processor, the Cochlear's first off-the-ear sound processor, the Nucleus Profile Slim Modiolar electrode, the world's slimmest electrode, as well as the Baha 5 range of sound processors. Cochlear announced plans to expand global manufacturing capacity for its implants with a $50m facility to be built in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. It also announced the acquisition of Sycle, a provider of practice management software, for an estimated US$78m. COH closed the week at $172.50.

On Tuesday, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) announced the sale of its OnePath pensions and investments and aligned dealer groups business to IOOF Holdings (IOOF) for $975m. ANZ will also enter a 20-year strategic alliance to make available IOOF superannuation and investment products to ANZ customers. IOOF announced that it has successfully completed an institutional placement of 43.5m ordinary shares at an issue price of $10.60 per share, to raise $461m to partially fund the acquisition of ANZ's OnePath Pensions and Investments business. ANZ finished the week at $30.59.while IFL closed at $11.44.

In economic news on Thursday, unemployment in Australia fell to 5.5pc in September from 5.6pc in August.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the total number of people with jobs rose by 19,800 over the previous month.

Full-time employment rose by 6,100, and new part-time employees was up 13,700.

At the close of weekly trading, the gold price finished at $1,281.80 per ounce, the WTI oil price traded at $52.07 a barrel, and the Australian dollar was worth US $0.7817.  

In the US on Friday night, the Dow Jones finished up 165.59 points to end the week at 23,328.63. 

The Share Price Index (SPI) finished up five points which should lead to a positive start to today’s trade.