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By Soumyajit Saha
Feb 14 (Reuters) - Australian shares closed higher on Friday, rising more than 1.5% in a week that saw better-than-expected corporate earnings lift prospects for heavyweight financials despite investor concerns over the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO rose 0.4% to close at its best week in a month.
Financial stocks .AXFJ rose to end over 3.6% for the week, their best week in nine months.
Top lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX posted its biggest weekly rise since last May on Friday after reporting a better-than-expected profit for the half year a day earlier.
Shares of National Australia Bank NAB.AX were at their highest close in three months as brokerages Jefferies and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) upgraded the stock's rating and price targets. manager AMP Ltd AMP.AX saw its best trading session in over six months, as brokerage Morgan Stanley said it sees earnings closer to stabilising in FY20. markets were jolted on Thursday by a jump in the daily coronavirus death toll in China's Hubei province, when a change in the methods of diagnosing patients led to a record spike in cases, though the numbers were reduced by Friday's update. decliners, gold stocks .AXGD lost over 1% as the country's largest listed gold miner Newcrest Mining NCM.AX dropped to its lowest close in more than eight months.
Energy stocks .AXEJ also fell to lose more than 1.4% over the week.
Australia's top independent gas producer Woodside Petroleum WPL.AX reported a 25% drop in annual underlying profit on Thursday, adding that the coronavirus outbreak was hampering its efforts to seal gas deals and sell stakes in a key growth project. explorer FAR Ltd FAR.AX plunged 8.8% after a tribunal ruled that the company did not have pre-emptive rights on ConocoPhillips' COP.N sale of a stake in a Senegal oil and gas field to Woodside Petroleum WPL.AX . the Tasman sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 slipped about 0.4% but closed the week higher.
Airport operator Auckland International Airport Ltd AIA.NZ and utilities company Meridian Energy Ltd MEL.NZ fell 1.1% and 1.4%, respectively.