Mining and tech lead Australian shares to 5-week closing high

By Reuters News

By Nichiket Sunil and Shravya Marakini

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Australian shares posted their highest close in 5 weeks on Friday, as easing concerns over a global equity selloff sparked buying in mining and technology stocks, while banks notched their strongest weekly gain in six months.

The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO rose 1% to 8,806.70, its highest close since September 10. The benchmark gained 1% this week, its best performance since early August.

Asian technology stocks stabilised after a recent selloff, as concerns over CoreWeave's debt burden eased, with upbeat earnings and resilient demand for semiconductors helping reinforce confidence in the sector's fundamentals.

Miners .AXMM rebounded 3.3%, helped by gold stocks .AXGD on strong bullion prices. A more than 4% drop on Thursday, led by BHP BHP.AX and Rio Tinto RIO.AX, highlighted the sector's growing ties to the AI trade through copper, a critical metal for AI infrastructure.

"The AI infrastructure boom has created a new layer of demand for copper and power infrastructure, pulling parts of the mining sector into the same investment cycle as technology stocks," said Hebe Chen, a market analyst at Vantage Markets.

BHP and Rio Tinto climbed 3.5% and 1.5%, respectively, on Friday. The sub-index, however, posted its seventh straight weekly loss.

Glencore's Australian shares GLEN.L, ended their debut week on the bourse lower than the opening level. Its CHESS Depositary Interests closed at A$11.16 on the day, over 2% lower than their opening price of A$11.44 on Wednesday.

Technology stocks .AXIJ rebounded 5.6% after a 3.4% drop on Thursday. Sector leader WiseTech Global WTC.AX climbed 9%, while accounting software provider Xero XRO.AX ended up 7.1%.

Banks .AXFJ fell after marking their highest close in more than a month on Thursday. The sector rallied earlier in the week after soft domestic jobs data tempered bets of a rate hike.

The sub-index, which comprises Australia's largest banks, rose 3.2% during the week, marking its best weekly performance since April.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 fell 0.5% to 13,753.73.

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