Australian shares rose 1.2 percent on Friday, helped by a recovery on Wall Street on corporate results and no worsening of Europe's debt crisis, but turnover remained thin as investors worried about the outlook for the eurozone. For the week, the benchmark index managed to rise 0.35 percent after a 1.7 percent fall the prior week.
Shares in Australia's Commonwealth Bank rose 1.6 percent to A$49.59, the best performer of the big four banks ahead of its quarterly update next week. The health care sub-index gained 1.8 percent. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index finished up 52.4 points at 4,296.5 points, but turnover was paltry at just 70 percent of average. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index gained 0.1 percent to 3,322.