The Australian sharemarket rallied on Friday as investor optimism about the direction of interest rates was bolstered by the European Central Bank joining the Bank of Canada in cutting interest rates.
For four out of five trading sessions this week, the sharemarket benchmark has finished in the green, particularly lifted by a tech stock rally on Thursday after US computer chipmaker Nvidia topped a market valuation of $US3 trillion . The ASX 200 was up 2 per cent for the week.Gold miners Newmont and Evolution Mining were among the biggest large-cap advancers on Friday after the price of bullion jumped 1 per cent.
The ECB also cut its key rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Thursday, with ECB president Christine Lagarde saying inflation in the region had eased enough for it to begin lowering rates.