Stellar high for market as currency heads lower

It might have been four days too late for the party, but the broader All Ordinaries index finally closed above the milestone 5000-point mark on Friday to cap off a stellar week for the sharemarket.
In a week when the bourse closed at record highs on four out of five days, a drop in the value of the Australian dollar to an 18-month low is giving investors fresh impetus to push it higher.
Having already surpassed the psychologically important 5000-point mark on Monday, the benchmark ASX 200 index rose 4.8 points to 5040.1 on Friday - up 68.9 points, or 1.4 per cent, over the week. The All Ordinaries closed 6 points higher at 5001.6 on Friday, up almost 69 points over the week.
Nomura Australia's market strategist, Eric Betts, said the major resource stocks had again underpinned the market's push to record highs.
"We are high but we are still not suffering vertigo," he said, adding that investors appeared comfortable buying at the market's current levels.
Among the mining stocks, BHP Billiton closed up 35c at $25.92 on Friday, up almost 5 per cent on the week. Rio Tinto soared 89c to $75.23 on the day and was up 5.6 per cent on the week.
Mr Betts said the strong Australian dollar had been a drag on company profits for the past 4½ years and the fall of more than US2c over the week was an unexpected boost for the market and firms highly exposed to the global economy.
Sugar refiner and building-products maker CSR was one of the strongest performers, rising more than 10 per cent over the week as world sugar prices surged 2.5 per cent, helping it offset a downturn in the residential construction market in NSW. The stock closed 11c higher at $4.28 on Friday.
Macquarie Equities' client adviser, David Halliday, said "all the planets are aligning" for the buoyant resource stocks as the falling dollar gave them a boost on top of already high prices for raw materials.
The market had also benefited from a high level of corporate activity, most noticeably Toll Holdings' attempted takeover of Patrick and the stoush between Alinta and AGL.
"It sets us up for a continuation of the strength in the market well and truly through 5000," he said, adding that the bourse was likely to test new highs until at least mid-year.