"The US market is now within 2% of all time-highs, and we are basically kind of soldiers to fortunes on that, following suit on the decent mark-up across the board," Damian Rooney, director of equity sales at Argonaut said. On Friday, risk sentiment was also supported by strong US economic data that revealed a rebound in the services industry last month. Australia's energy stocks jumped 1.3%, and were among the top gainers on the benchmark stock index, helped by rising oil prices.
Cooper Energy surged as much as 17.1% to hit an over 11-year peak, making it the top performer on the energy sub-index. The oil and gas explorer said drilling at an exploration well led to the discovery of a gasfield in the Otway Basin in offshore Victoria. Tech stocks closed 2.2% higher, tracking their US peers, which drove a rally on Wall Street on Thursday.
Aussie tech firms Appen Ltd and Computershare Ltd advanced 2.6% and 3.2% respectively. Heavyweight financial stocks posted a second straight session of gains, with the "Big Four" banks ending between 0.4% and 0.9% higher. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index closed up 1% to 11,218.99, a record high and produced its biggest weekly gain in over 10 years. Tourism Holdings and Vista Group International strengthened 3.7% and 3.4% each.