Banks lead market rebound

AUSTRALIA’S sharemarket has reversed a three-day decline, following a strong overnight lead-in from Wall Street and gains made by the big four banks, but still suffered its biggest weekly fall in 11 weeks.

At the close of trade, the S&P/ASX200 index had lifted 31.4 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 7014.2, meaning the benchmark finished the week down 0.9 per cent.

The All Ordinaries lifted 30 points, or 0.42 per cent to close at 7239.4 points.

Investors managed to shake off inflation fears and ignore the still-falling iron ore price that triggered a sell-off during the week, with energy, utility and real estate stocks making gains.

However, tech stocks underperformed in the rebound, with the tech index lifting just 0.12 per cent after falling nearly 5 per cent on Thursday. Whitehaven Coal was the best performing stock of the day, lifting 9.16 per cent to close at $1.37 per share after Macquarie lifted its price target for the miner.

Treasury Wine Estates lifted 6.07 per cent to close at $10.84 as investors continued to applaud CEO Tim Ford’s growth plan.

In financials, Commonwealth Bank hit a new record high of $97.38 during the session before falling slightly to close at $96.58, up 0.63 per cent on opening.

The other major banks also performed well: ANZ lifted 1 per cent to close at $27.42 as did NAB, which finished at $26.22 while Westpac lifted 0.87 per cent to $25.41.

The major miners fell as iron ore pulled back from record highs on Wednesday.