The sharemarket climbed 1.3 per cent on Friday to claim its best session since July after better-than-expected Chinese and US data boosted optimism about the health of the global economy.
Rio Tinto climbed 3 per cent to $118.90 and posted the biggest weekly increase since November 2022. BHP Group was up 3.5 per cent to $45.68 and Fortescue 4 per cent to $21.22. It has stormed almost 10 per cent higher this week. Qantas shares edged up 0.4 per cent to $5.61, defying another blow by the competition watchdog. The ACCC has denied Qantas the right to tie up with China Eastern Airlines, saying the collaboration would give the airline too much power to drive up prices.Woodside rose 1.3 per cent to $38.39. The oil and gas company delayed, again, a seismic survey for its $16.5 billion Scarborough LNG project in Western Australia after a Federal Court decision to grant an injunction on the start of the work.