The market finished the week at 6,119.295, down 57.55 points from the previous week's close of 6,176.84.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Friday's trade, the All Ordinaries finished down 11.10 points or -0.18 per cent.
On Monday, the materials sector was the main contributor to gains with base metal and gold prices rising in weekend trade. The sector has experienced five straight weeks of gains as commodity prices continue to rally. Major diversified miners, BHP and Rio Tinto (RIO) were both higher with BHP lifting 1.1pc and RIO up 1.5pc. BHP ended the week on $30.69.
On Tuesday, the best performers were infant formula makers driven by a profit upgrade for Bellamy’s (BAL). The Tasmanian-based company surged by 24.8pc after saying it expects revenue to lift by 30-35pc in FY18 rather than 15-20 pc. BAL shares are up 30pc YTD after lifting by 60pc in 2017. A2 Milk (A2M) rose by 6.5pc while Blackmores (BKL) jumped by a touch over 6pc. BAL ended the week on $14.50.
On Wednesday, leading names in the lithium mining sector succumbed to selling after steep gains in recent weeks. Orocobre (ORE) remained in a trading halt as the lithium miner seeks to raise $361 million from investors to expand the group’s Olaroz Lithium Facility in Northern Argentina. ORE and the Toyota Tsusho Corporation are finalising plans to jointly develop a 10,000 tpa lithium hydroxide plant in Fukushima, Japan.
On Thursday, job data was announced indicating 2017 was a tremendous year for job gains. 403,000 positions were added, 303,000 of which were full-time. This marks the fastest pace of job growth in a decade; growing significantly faster than population growth. With more jobs being advertised in Australia, there is a chance unemployment falls in 2018.
At the close of weekly trading, the gold price finished at $1,331.90 per ounce, the WTI oil price traded at $63.41 a barrel, and the Australian dollar was worth US $0.79. In the US on Friday night, the Dow Jones finished down 97.840 points to end the week at $26,017.81. The Share Price Index (SPI) finished up 30 points at 5,980 which should lead to a positive start to today’s trade.