Financial and energy stocks put Australian shares on track for a second day of gains on Friday, taking cues from a rise on Wall Street and higher oil prices overnight.
The S&P/ASX 200 index was up 11.577 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5,989.7 by 0053 GMT, and looked set to log a weekly gain for a third straight week.
A rally in popular tech stocks such as Facebook buoyed Wall Street, with all three of its main indexes ending higher.
A gain of between 0.1 per cent and 0.8 per cent by the ‘Big Four’ banks boosted the finance-heavy index the most, reports Reuters.
Energy stocks rose in tandem with oil prices as the Aussie energy index climbed as much as 1.4 per cent.
Woodside Petroleum rose 0.4 per cent, while Origin Energy gained as much as 4.2 per cent at one point, hitting its highest in over 2 years.