Market ends week on high despite plunge in Woolworths profits
The Australian share market finished the week on a high, despite a hammering for Woolworths after the supermarket giant reported a fall in profit.
The All Ordinaries index closed up 21 points or nearly 0.4 per cent to 5,899 and the ASX-200 added 20 points to 5,929.
The local indices rose despite a modest fall on Wall Street and a 9.5 per cent drop for Woolworths stocks.
Australia's biggest supermarket company reported a 3.1 per cent fall in first-half net profit to $1.28 billion, with its Masters home improvement business weighing again with a loss of a $103 million.
The news was better for the other firms releasing profits on the last day of reporting season, with retailer Harvey Norman rising 1.6 per cent and Penfolds wine maker Treasury Wine Estates closing flat.
It was the finance sector that dominated the market's rise, led by a gain of 1.7 per cent for the Commonwealth Bank.
Westpac added 0.9 per cent, NAB rose 0.7 per cent and ANZ closed up 0.5 per cent.
Mining sector rises as Rio Tinto announces cost-cutting
The mining sector also contributed, with Rio Tinto climbing 1.1 per cent as it announced a cost-cutting restructure to merge its copper and coal businesses.
Rival BHP Billiton added 0.3 per cent.
Qantas added to Thursday's gains with a rise of 1.4 per cent but was outdone by a 2 per cent rise for Virgin Australia.
Telstra closed up just shy of 1 per cent.
Tapis crude oil in Singapore slipped to $US64.18 a barrel.
West Texas crude fell heavily overnight to $US47.60 a barrel.
Spot gold remained steady at $US1,208 an ounce.
At 4:30pm AEDT, the Australian dollar was buying about 77.9 US cents, 69.5 euro cents, 50.5 British pence, 92.9 Japanese yen and $NZ1.03.
