Tech stocks lift Australian sharemarket to cap winning week, tech giant Dicker Data rises 20pc

The Australian share market has capped a winning week despite simmering rate hike concerns.

The local bourse was shunted into the green Friday by tech results on Wall Street.

The local tech sector led gains, driving the ASX200 to 9092.3 points, up 0.6 per cent with nine of 11 sectors in the green.

The benchmark gained 0.37 per cent for the week as the market hit the home stretch of reporting season.

Pantoro Gold and integrated lithium outfit Vulcan Energy were big movers, up 5.9 and 5 per cent respectively.

Soaring overnight trade in Nvidia and Salesforce flowed to the local tech sector Friday.

IT software and hardware firm Dicker Data basked in a 37 per cent jump in first-half earnings, catapulting shares up 20.7 per cent to $15.30.

Managing director Fiona Brown said the company was making hay on “opportunities emerging from major technology refresh cycles, AI infrastructure investment and sustained demand across software and cybersecurity”.

SaaS firm Readytech Holdings clawed back 8.8 per cent, to be down only 37 per cent this calendar year in the mauling of Software as a Service companies.

Xero had its best day in two months, gaining 4.8 per cent to $85.64. Technology One rose 3.5 per cent, and WiseTech, NEXTDC and LIFE360 each lifted between 2.1 and 2.7 per cent.

Property exchange platform PEXA crashed 17.4 per cent, burrowing to a record low in its five years on the ASX.

Full-year results point to guidance with a sharp slowdown in earnings, as fewer homeowners look to sell.

Morningstar analysts have raised fair value estimates on about one-third of companies covered this reporting season, with valuation cuts to about 20 per cent. Share price movements on results day are averaging 6.5 per cent either way.

“We’re seeing share price volatility pick up again too, little surprise given the smaller stocks cluster in the final week,” Morningstar analyst Lochlan Halloway said in a note.