Outperforming market may flatten out

Australia's outperforming share market may flatten out this week as the rest of the world plays catch-up and new Business Investment Figures are released.

Pedestrians look at display boards at the Australian Stock Exchange

The Australian share market could flatten out this week as the rest of the world catches up. (AAP)

Australia's outperforming share market may flatten out this week as the rest of the world catches up.

Despite a shaky end to the week, the ASX still closed up 1.42 points on Friday, while the US and European markets saw the squaring up of portfolios in anticipation for upcoming holidays on Monday.

Fresh Business Investment Figures will be released in Australia on Thursday, which are expected to show a modest fall for the March quarter.

But CommSec chief economist Craig James says economists will be looking more closely at the forward expectations that are also released with those figures.

"Overall, businesses are in pretty good shape, profits are reasonably high and certainly the fundamentals of the economy are in pretty good shape," he said.

Also to be released later this week are economic growth figures in the United States and the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of tracking inflation.

These figures come amid ongoing concerns over the US-China trade war.

"We're continuing to watch the tweets coming out from President Donald Trump," Mr James said.

"That remains the key focus this week ... to see whether the talks restart."

In Australia, futures trading is pointing to a flat start at the open on Monday, down two points, suggesting other markets around the world will catch up.

Mr James says the recent federal election gave the Australian share market a boost.

"Effectively, they didn't have to deal with changes to capital gains tax and changes to things like franking credits and the like," Mr James said.

"The status quo was returned in terms of federal politics."

The Australian dollar has also been moving well, buying 68.92 US cents at 1703 AEST on Friday before jumping to 69.27 cents, compared to 68.71 on Thursday.


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Source: AAP



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