Investment boutique GQG was the biggest large-cap decliner, with its shares slumping 2.8 per cent despite the company reporting it ended the half-year with record funds under management of $US155.6 billion ($234.9 billion).

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Shares of global packaging giant Amcor, which is also listed in the US, dipped 2.8 per cent after the company announced a 30 per cent drop in net income to $US730 million ($1.1 billion) for 2023-24, down from $US1.1 billion in the same period a year ago.

Treasury Wine Estates (down 0.6 per cent) lost some of the gains it made on Thursday. The Penfolds brand owner reported a post-tax profit for fiscal 2024 of $98.8 million, a 61.1 per cent decline, but in line with analysts’ forecasts.

Shares in real estate platform Domain fell 2.6 per cent after the company reported a rise in sales of 13.1 per cent and a profit of $42.4 million – up 62.5 per cent year-on-year. Nine Entertainment, owner of this masthead, owns 60 per cent of Domain.

The lowdown

Morningstar analyst Matthew Hodge said with reporting season now well under way, the market appears to be following the “macro-economic script, namely rate-cut expectations”.

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“We’re yet to see some significant earnings season pattern of either disappointment or delight. Share prices of those who’ve reported are largely reacting based on company-specific factors,” he said.

Capital senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said Australian equities are benefiting from “the improved appetite for risk” in global markets, and may continue to rise if sentiment on Wall Street “stays positive”.

“It was a broad-based gain that saw the materials sector lift, despite iron ore prices remaining sluggish,” he said.

On Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 Index surged 1.6 per cent in its fourth-best day of the year as the market rights itself following a scary few weeks. It is now back to within 2.2 percentage points of its record high, set last month, after briefly falling close to 10 per cent below it.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite Index burst 2.3 per cent higher as Nvidia and other big-name technology stocks recovered more of their stumbles from the past month.

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“There is a reason why there is so much talk about the cost of living, [because] high inflation hurts everyone. It reduces what people can buy with their wages, erodes the value of savings, and it disproportionately hurts those on low or fixed incomes,” said Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock amid news that Australians are falling behind on their loan repayments.

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with AP