ASX Today Live News & Analysis

Australia's share market has ended the week higher, buoyed by optimism about a solution to the US-Iran conflict and a slightly less gloomy outlook for local interest rates.

The S&P/ASX200 rose 35.3 points on Friday, up 0.41 per cent to 8,657, as the broader All Ordinaries improved 36.4 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 8,877.2.

The top-200 rose 0.3 per cent over the five sessions.

"The US equity market certainly found a bit of momentum towards the middle of the week, and that's helped us higher," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore told AAP.

"And of course the jobs report that we saw yesterday was softer than expected, helping those interest rate-sensitive sectors find their footing and, looking at the weekly performance, it's been the retail-facing sectors and the banks doing well."

All big four banks ended the session and the week higher, as dip-buyers entered after CommBank's nearly $30 billion sell down earlier in the month.

Miners and energy stocks helped lift the bourse in the week's final session, with strong leads from BHP, Evolution Mining and South32.

The All Ordinaries gold sub-index fell six per cent since Monday, despite a relatively modest decline in the underlying commodity to $US4,525 ($A6,342) an ounce.??

Energy stocks advanced a surprising one per cent on Friday, as Brent crude held onto its recent losses to hover just below $US104 a barrel.

Woodside and Santos advanced 0.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively, while coal miners were mixed and uranium stocks rebounded from recent sell-downs.

Optimism about a potential US-Iran peace deal had put downward pressure on oil prices, despite a lack of material progress, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said.

"The past week saw more of the same in relation to the Iran war - more threats from (US President Donald) Trump followed by soothing words about 'very big discussions' with Iran," Dr Oliver said.

"While a few ships got through, the (Hormuz) Strait remains effectively closed maintaining a roughly 12 or 13 per cent hit to global oil supplies."

Consumer-facing stocks had an underwhelming session on Friday, but staples ended the week almost three per cent higher, snapping a four-week losing streak, while cyclicals improved 1.2 per cent.

In company news, Guzman y Gomez shares surged 9.6 per cent to $19.81, after the Mexican-inspired fast-food chain called off its US expansion after failing to meet performance targets.

Artificial intelligence data company Appen advanced by a similar amount, after reaffirming its revenue guidance range of between $270 million and $300 million.

The Australian dollar is buying 71.36 US cents, up from 71.13 US cents on Thursday at 5pm.

Looking ahead, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will hand down April inflation figures on Wednesday, with economists expecting a marginal dip in the headline figure but an even smaller uptick in the trimmed mean.

"Presuming we don't see anything too far outside those expectations, and combined with the softer jobs data we saw this week, I think probably that sets up a nice (interest rate) hold for the Reserve Bank in June," IG's Mr Sycamore said.

ON THE ASX:

The S&P/ASX200 gained 35.3 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 8,657

The broader All Ordinaries rose 36.4 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 8,877.2

The NZX 50 added 113.24 points (0.87%) to 12,991.31 while the Nikkei gained 1654.93 points (2.61%) at the time of writing, to be closed at 63,339.07