Australian shares closed higher on Friday, rising more than 1.5% in a week that saw better-than-expected corporate earnings lift prospects for heavyweight financials despite investor concerns over the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.
The S&P/ASX 200 index <.AXJO> rose 0.4% to close at its best week in a month.
Financial stocks <.AXFJ> rose to end over 3.6% for the week, their best week in nine months.
Top lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia <CBA.AX> posted its biggest weekly rise since last May on Friday after reporting a better-than-expected profit for the half year a day earlier.
Shares of National Australia Bank <NAB.AX> were at their highest close in three months as brokerages Jefferies and Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock's rating and price targets.
Wealth manager AMP Ltd <AMP.AX> saw its best trading session in over six months, as brokerage Morgan Stanley said it sees earnings closer to stabilising in FY20.
Global markets were jolted on Thursday by a jump in the daily coronavirus death toll in China's Hubei province, when a change in the methods of diagnosing patients led to a record spike in cases, though the numbers were reduced by Friday's update.
Among decliners, gold stocks <.AXGD> lost over 1% as the country's largest listed gold miner Newcrest Mining <NCM.AX> dropped to its lowest close in more than eight months.
Energy stocks <.AXEJ> also fell to lose more than 1.4% over the week.
Australia's top independent gas producer Woodside Petroleum <WPL.AX> reported a 25% drop in annual underlying profit on Thursday, adding that the coronavirus outbreak was hampering its efforts to seal gas deals and sell stakes in a key growth project.
Oil explorer FAR Ltd <FAR.AX> plunged 8.8% after a tribunal ruled that the company did not have pre-emptive rights on ConocoPhillips' <COP.N> sale of a stake in a Senegal oil and gas field to Woodside Petroleum <WPL.AX>.
Across the Tasman sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index <.NZ50> slipped about 0.4% but closed the week higher.
Airport operator Auckland International Airport Ltd <AIA.NZ> and utilities company Meridian Energy Ltd <MEL.NZ> fell 1.1% and 1.4%, respectively.
(Reporting by Soumyajit Saha in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
