Advertisement

Aussie shares to open slightly higher

The Australian sharemarket is expected to open slightly higher on Monday despite flat trading in the US.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver says futures markets are pointing to a gain of 10 points, or 0.2 per cent, at the local open.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed up 0.32 per cent at 5,566.5 on Friday.

US shares rebounded late on Friday night to end mixed after an early bout of selling on rocketing tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.30 per cent at 16,662.91, the broad-based S&P 500 finished off a bare 0.01 per cent at 1,955.06 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 0.27 per cent to 4,464.93.

"For all intents and purposes, the US share market was flat, so consequently, the lead-in from the US is fairly neutral," Dr Oliver told AAP.

He said the conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq would likely affect the market during the week, but it was difficult to say whether that influence would be positive or not.

"Both of those issues seem to wax and wane," he said.

"Obviously geopolitics remains an issue and that's going to cause occasional bouts of volatility."

Domestically, the market would be looking to the Reserve Bank of Australia's minutes on Tuesday and RBA Governor Glenn Stevens' parliamentary testimony on Wednesday, he said.

About 90 major Australian companies were also due to report profits in the week ahead.

Dr Oliver said the Australian dollar, which was at 93.22 US cents on Saturday morning, would likely remain fairly steady as influences in the US pushed it higher and "jawboning" from the Reserve Bank sought to drive it down.

"It's sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place," he said.

"It's hard to come up with a strong view either way, but I think ultimately it's probably going to head lower."