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The ASX has finished the day high, up 1.7% at 9,014 points.
Overall, the market had 150 stocks gaining, two unchanged and 48 stocks in the red.
When looking at the sectors, Financials at the top, up 3.3%, followed by Utilities, up 2.8% and then Materials, up 1.9%.
Healthcare finished at the bottom, down 4.6%, followed by Real Estate, down 0.3%.
Among companies, the top mover was Aussie Broadband, up 14.8%, followed by AGL Energy, up 11.8%, and then James Hardie Industries, up 10.9%
It wasn't a good day for CSL, down 11%, followed by Resmed Inc and Superloop Ltd, down 4.7% and 3.3%, respectively.
The Australian dollar is up 0.5% at 71.12 US cents.
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) said a record number of Australians are refinancing their home loans, citing the latest data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The new figure shows 640,137 mortgages were refinanced throughout 2025, a 20% jump from the previous year, as more borrowers than ever before renegotiated or switched their mortgages, ABA says.
"It's clear Aussies have their eye on the ball when it comes to shopping around for a better deal,” ABA CEO Simon Birmingham said.
"Australian banks offer highly competitive and innovative mortgage products, competing on the latest technology platforms and giving customers more choice.
"Record numbers of mortgage holders refinancing is a demonstration of the wide variety of home loan options customers can choose from.
"More homeowners than ever before are renegotiating their mortgages or switching lenders, showing how fiercely competitive Australia’s home loan market is.
"The strong competition within the home loan market is loud and clear in this data, with 64% of mortgage holders who refinanced doing so by switching to another lender."
Prices current around 4:37pm AEDT
Live updates on the major ASX indices:
ANZ has adjusted its GDP forecast for 2026 down to 2% from 2.2%.
"The impact on sentiment of the RBA’s rate increase last week may have been a contributing factor to the ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence declining by 3.6 points to its lowest level since December 2023," it said.
"On the data front, household spending declined by 0.4% month-on-month in December, marking its first monthly drop since March 2024.
"Westpac’s consumer survey and NAB business conditions have also indicated a slowdown."
Meanwhile, the bank says the AUD/USD fluctuated widely between 0.69 and 0.71 this week, influenced by both domestic factors and global events.
"Australia has a light economic calendar in the coming days, with the RBA February meeting minutes and Wage Price Index data due next week," it added.
"So we think external factors are likely to influence the AUD more than domestic developments."
The ABC sought a response from Telstra after learning it plans to axe up to 442 roles, in addition to the 209 redundancies announced yesterday.
Here's the statement from a Telstra spokesperson:
We can confirm that we shared a number of proposed changes with our employees that will be subject to consultation over the coming weeks. If these changes go ahead, around 442 roles will no longer be required.
A significant part of the proposed changes are linked to the ongoing reset of our Enterprise business. We’ve made strong progress simplifying our portfolio, sharpening our focus and improving customer experience, however the complexity of our legacy systems and processes continues to slow us down and makes it harder to deliver the reliability and simplicity our customers expect.
To accelerate this shift, we’ve proposed a strategic partnership with Infosysto modernise how we serve enterprise and mid-market customers. This partnership would support the move to smarter, more integrated digital systems, and make it easier for customers to do business with us. If the proposal proceeds, some work in our Service & Delivery team would move to Infosys, and some roles would no longer be required.
Across other parts of the organisation, we’ve proposed changes to streamline duplicated work, clarify accountability and strengthen our ability to deliver better experiences for both our frontline teams and our customers.
We are committed to consulting with our people first about the proposed changes. If the proposals go ahead, both Telstra and the JV are committed to exploring redeployment opportunities for those people impacted. Our Telstra team will be able to apply for open roles at Telstra, and the JV team will be able to apply for open roles at Telstra or Accenture.
If that’s not possible and people leave Telstra or the JV, they’ll have access to leading retrenchment benefits and a range of support services.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has said there were 60,445 new investment loans approved in the December quarter 2025, 5.5% higher than the previous quarter, and 23.6% higher than the December quarter 2024.
The total value of new investment loans was $43 billion in the December quarter, up 7.9%, or $3.2 billion, compared to the previous quarter, according to the new ABS data.
The average loan size also rose by $31,008 over the quarter to $716,711, ABS added.
There was growth in the number of investment loans across all states:
There were falls across the territories:
Please note that the number of investment loans in the ACT is not seasonally adjusted.
The number of new first home buyer loans rose 6.8% to 31,783 in the December quarter 2025, and 9.1% through the year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Mish Tan, ABS head of finance statistics, said there was strong growth across all borrower types during this quarter.
"The number of first home buyer loans rose 6.8%, investor loan numbers rose 5.5%, and the number of owner-occupier non-first home buyer loans rose 3.6%," Dr Tan said.
"This was the largest rise in the number of first-home-buyer loans since the December quarter 2023, and their value increased by 15.5%.
Changes to policies supporting first home-buyers this quarter include the expansion of the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme and the introduction of the Australian Government Help to Buy Scheme, ABS says.
According to the data, Tasmania was the only state that had a fall in the number of first home buyer, while there were rises in New South Wales (+10.9%), Queensland (+6.4%), Victoria (+3.5%), Western Australia (+9.8%), South Australia (+4.8%), the Australian Capital Territory (+7.1%) and the Northern Territory (+3.2%).
Telstra is in the process of axing up to 651 roles, the ABC has learned.
Emails shared exclusively with ABC News by Telstra staff have revealed up to 650 jobs could go, with some to be outsourced to a technology firm in India.
After the telco confirmed 209 jobs would be slashed from its AI joint venture with Accenture, Telstra workers said they had also been notified of hundreds of other potential job losses.
Here's the story.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn has put a positive spin on the influence of AI, predicting it would improve productivity in Australia's economy while creating new jobs.
Speaking to the ABC's Alicia Barry after the nation's largest bank reported a 6% lift in cash earnings to $5.45bn for the six months to December 31, Mr Comyn says AI is already helping the bank better serve customers.
"I think the potential is there for [AI] to provide both improvements to productivity, improving across a range of different industries the service experience," he said.
"I think it will create new jobs. [But] I think at times it will cause concern in different parts of the community."
On the back of the CBA's strong results, shareholders will receive an interim dividend of of $2.35 per share, fully franked — up 4% from a year ago.
"We did see a pick-up in credit growth over the course of that year ... now, of, course, that's before the latest inflation reading and the latest interest rate hike," Mr Comyn said.
"So, you know, we saw a stronger credit growth last year in home loans, sort of 7%, more than 10% in business lending. And, of course, house prices were up again last year.
"We do think there'll be a slight moderation in terms of housing credit growth."
He added that he thought Australia's economy was in good shape, although inflation remained a concern.
"The labor market is still very strong, so unemployment is at very low levels. It is important, of course, that inflation is reduced. I think inflation hurts everyone, particularly lower-income Australians," he said.
"And so, unfortunately, it does look like there'll probably be one more rate hike, but as I said, we're hoping that that will be the last of it."
CBA's business lending volumes grew 6% in the six months, also ahead of system growth.
Household deposit volumes were up 7.5%, with CBA holding a 27% market share.