The market finished the week with three straight days of gains, closing with 0.4% higher on Friday. The communications services sector gained 1.65%, while energy and information technology sectors were the only two sectors in the red.

IT company Link Group (ASX:LNK) led Friday’s advance, after they received a takeover bid from Carlyle Group, a private equity company in the US. The news saw LNK rise 8.6%. While, Afterpay (ASX:APT) fell more than 5%, after its soon to be listed US parent company Square reported third quarter results which saw its price tumble. 

Stocks rallied on Wall Street with all three major benchmarks recorded a winning week. The S&P500 up 0.4%, the Dow up 0.6% and the Nasdaq up 0.2%. 

Following US equities, the SPI futures are suggesting the ASX200 will rise 0.3% at the open. 

What to watch today:

• Keep watch of Sydney Airport (ASX:SYD). Over the weekend they received the binding offer for IFM Investors and Global Infrastructure Partners to takeover Sydney Airport for $32 billion. The bid is worth $8.75 cash per share and the airport’s board are expected to accept the bid today. 
• Australia and New Zealand Bank (ASX:ANZ) and Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) go ex-dividend today. 
• Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) was one of the most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients on Friday. Broker ratings on CBA vary. The stock is a Bell Potter BUY, while other brokers are not as positive on the stock. CSL (ASX:CSL) was another highly trading stock, gaining over 3% over the week and is now trading at $314. 
• The oil price jumped more than 3% higher, after OPEC agreed to stand by their plan to raise oil output by 400,000 barrels per day until December. Gold is also trading higher, as the Bank of England held interest rates at record lows and positive job data came through in the US. 
• And the seaborne iron ore price has fallen to US$94.43 per tonne. 

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter have upgraded their rating on coal mining company Bathurst Resources (ASX:BRL) from a HOLD to a BUY, maintaining their price target at $0.98. 
• Bullish charting signals have been identified in Firefinch (ASX:FFX), Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) and Nufarm (ASX:NUF), according to Trading Central.