As it happened: Terror attack at Manchester synagogue kills two people; Women and children arrive back in Australia from Syria

The Australian sharemarket has ended the week in the green, lifted by technology, healthcare and consumer discretionary stocks, after Wall Street closed at a record.

The S&P/ASX 200 closed 41.5 points, or 0.5 per cent, higher at 8987.4. Eight of the market’s 11 sectors closed in positive territory.

Optimism about future US interest rate cuts lifted global sharemarkets this week, despite the partial US government shutdown. The Australian sharemarket finished the week 2.3 per cent higher than it began.

Clarity Pharmaceuticals finished at the top of the bourse, closing 19.3 per cent higher, followed by Eagers Automotive, which rose 15.3 per cent after completing a capital raising to fund an investment in a Canadian dealership group. DigiCo Infrastructure surged 11.7 per cent on stronger earnings guidance.

A group of Australian women believed to be the wives and children of Islamic State fighters who spent years stranded in Syria have managed to smuggle themselves back into Australia.

It is understood the women went to Syria and Iraq during the rule of the terrorist group Islamic State, which controlled large parts of both countries between 2013 and 2019.

After leaving Syria, the group of six was detained by Lebanese authorities as they did not have valid visas or legitimate entry records. They were issued passports after being processed by Lebanese authorities.

Australian citizens are entitled to passports if they meet eligibility requirements.

Sidoarjo: Early this morning the bodies of three boys were pulled from beneath the rubble of a school that collapsed in Indonesia, and with more than 50 students still unaccounted for the death toll was expected to rise, authorities said.

Rescue crews had been working by hand since the collapse of the school on Monday as they searched for survivors, but with no more signs of life detected by yesterday they turned to heavy excavators equipped with jackhammers to help them progress more rapidly.

The structure fell on top of hundreds of people in a prayer hall at the century-old al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo on the eastern side of Indonesia’s Java island. The students were mostly boys in years 7 to 12, between the ages of 12 and 19. Female students were praying in another part of the building and managed to escape, survivors said.

Eight students have been confirmed dead and about 105 injured, many with head injuries and broken bones, and 55 remain unaccounted for.

A fourth cost blowout is set to hit the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project, where the price has already soared sixfold above the original estimate, as the Commonwealth-owned company announces a comprehensive review of the project’s costs.

The huge project is viewed by governments and the electricity market operator as a crucial element of Australia’s transition from a coal powered grid to one dominated by renewable energy.

Snowy Hydro chief executive Dennis Barnes announced today that the company would conduct a “line-by-line reassessment” of contractor Future Generation Joint Venture’s costs, which is expected to take nine months to complete. He declined to estimate how much the blowout could be.

Any price rise is bad news for the Albanese government, which is already facing scrutiny of its renewables goals, as many experts warn the government cannot reach its target to boost the share of clean energy to 82 per cent of electricity to the grid.