Wall Street provided a subdued lead overnight on Thursday, with the Dow Jones down 0.2 per cent, but the local market increased from the opening bell to finish strongly higher for the day. The All Ordinaries finished 0.7 per cent up on Friday, but 0.8 per cent down for the week at 5888.9, while the S&P/ASX 200 index was 0.7 per cent higher for the day but down 0.9 per cent for the week to 5919.9.

Friday's gains put the benchmark index back on track to mount another assault next week on what is proving a psychological hurdle of 6000 points, after the worst sell-off since December on Thursday.

The big banks provided strong support on Friday but were generally lower for the week. CBA was 2.1 per cent down to $94.34, NAB traded 1.4 per cent down at $38.83, Westpac fell 1.3 per cent to $39.20, while ANZ Banking Group was flat at $36.80. Bank of Queensland traded 7.1 per cent lower to $13.54 over the five sessions after a poorly received earnings update on Thursday,

A big winner for the week was out-of-favour Woolworths, which closed 1.8 per cent up for the week at $29.62. Rival Wesfarmers closed 0.3 per cent down.

Poor US data during the week drove Wall Street down and the local market followed, said Alistair McCorquodale, private client adviser at Morgans.

"The market's down for the week and that was really driven by the release of that durable goods number in the United States. Everyone had been looking at the Federal Reserve and what was going to happen around what was going to happen with official interest rates," said Mr McCorquodale.

"With the release of that number we saw US markets move towards thinking, well, how is the US market actually performing?

"When that came in below expectations, that's when we saw the underperformance for the week."

Regionally, Chinese shares broke a 10-day winning streak on Wednesday, the latest in a series of runs that has led the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index from 2500 in November to 3680 on Friday – a 47 per cent increase. Shares are being driven by the belief that China will meet its 7 per cent target for economic growth, say analysts.

Gold and oil prices, and stocks, were affected during the week by fighting in the Arabian Peninsula between a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels in Yemen. While Yemen is a minor-league oil producer, the fact that Saudi Arabia – one of the world's leading oil exporters – had become  involved in an armed conflict roiled the market.

Although there was no disruption in petroleum production, the longer-term market impact of rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East was enough to push prices up, said analysts.

Among oil stocks for the week, Santos was up 2.9 per cent  to $7.53, Woodside was down 1.8 per cent to $35.04, and Origin lifted 1.0 per cent to $11.71.

The unrest in Yemen also boosted demand for haven assets and led to gold extending its longest run of gains in more than two years.

The precious metal advanced nearly 5 per cent in seven straight sessions of gains, the longest streak since August 2012. It was also helped by the US Federal Reserve signalling that it won't raise interest rates soon, weakening the dollar and raising the appeal of bullion as an alternative.

Among gold stocks for the week, Newcrest gained 5.4 per cent to $13.65 and Regis soared 7.6 per cent to $1.35, but Northern Star lost 2.5 per cent to $2.32.

Among other stocks, Metcash lost 3 per cent for the week after staff changes at the grocery wholesaler.

Metcash chief executive of supermarkets Fergus Collins will depart the role. An appointment has not been named; until then Metcash chief executive Ian Morrice will "take on the day-to-day running of the supermarkets business", Metcash told the Australian Securities Exchange.

Chief financial officer Brad Soller will take over Metcash's corporate functions in the meantime, it said.

G8 Education gained 0.3 per cent for the week to $3.62, a change after being heavily sold during the past six weeks on fears about the roll-up's balance sheet and its ability to fund future acquisitions.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts have come out in support for G8 Education, saying an underwritten dividend reinvestment plan and strong free cashflow would be enough to see off fears about an equity raising.

"However, after recent discussions with management, we do not believe an equity raising is imminent," BAML analysts told clients Friday morning.

LNG export project developer Liquefied Natural Gas has assured investors that first exports from its proposed $4.5 billion export terminal in Louisiana remain on track for late 2018 despite slight delays in firming up customer contracts.

The company had previously guided investors to expect binding customer off-take deals for the Magnolia LNG project by  March 31, but it said  on Friday final board approvals for the first contracts would occur only after that date. LNG was down 0.6 per cent for the week to $3.21.

Evolution Mining has confirmed it is in talks with La Mancha Resources over the potential purchase of its West Australian gold assets.

Evolution is running the ruler over the private company's mines and processing plant in the Goldfields region of Western Australia that  could be worth about $500 million.

In a statement on Friday morning, Evolution said its discussions with La Mancha were ongoing and no terms had been agreed to yet.

Evolution was up 10.5 per cent for the week to 84¢.