Market bulls take over Buoyed by global investor optimism about the health of the US economy after the US Federal Reserve decided to begin cutting its stimulus, the Australian sharemarket chalked up its best week since April. For the week, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 shot up 166.77 points, or 3.3 per cent, to 5265.20, snapping a four-week losing streak. The rally began on Thursday, after the US Fed announcement it would begin the tapering of its $US85 billion per month bond-buying program by reducing purchases by $US10 billion, sparking global stock gains, with the ASX200 jumping 2.1 per cent. The positive sentiment continued on Friday on the local market, with the ASX200 gaining 63 points, or 1.2 per cent. The local bourse was one of only a handful markets in the region to continue its rally for a second day, but traders said the Australian index was still playing catch-up, after a poor performance this month. In late trade on Friday, Asian markets were mostly down, with heavier losses on Chinese indexes. US markets bounced, anticipating the taper decision, and continued their push on Wednesday upon the announcement, before trading relatively flat in Thursday trade. The Dow Jones was up more than 400 points got the week, or 2.7 per cent, hitting new all-time highs. Despite the best week in more than half a year, the ASX200 is still down 1 per cent for December. ""Our market has probably been beset by quite a lot of bad news over the last three or four weeks and shifting sentiment about this whole lack of momentum around the Australian economy,"" said JBWere executive director Mike Kendall. ""The US had a massive bounce after tapering. We didn't quite share the same level of effervescence and I suspect a few people are saying our market was a little bit oversold, so a few bargain hunters position before they go on holidays."" For the week, all of the local sub-indexes finished higher, with telecommunications leading the way, up 4.6 per cent. Industrials pushed 3.9 per cent higher and materials gained 3.8 per cent. Consumer staples and discretionary also lifted, up 3.5 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively. Financials rose 3.1 per cent. ""Some of the yields on offer are pretty good in the marketplace, and given interest rates are very low and deposit rates are 2.5 per cent, if you can get 6 per cent fully franked, or 5.5 per cent fully franked, I think investors are saying "that's still good value" and we saw a bit of bargain hunting in the last couple of days,"" said Mr Kendall. The big miners had a successful week, as BHP added 3.9 per cent to $37.23, while rival Rio lifted 2.5 per cent to $66.74. Iron ore miner Fortescue surged 6.9 per cent to $5.73. Wotif was the worst performer for the week, plummeting 38 per cent to $2.53, after the travel company warned that its first half profits will fall up to 20 per cent and market conditions would remain volatile for the rest of the financial year. Some of this month's worst performers, Qantas and QBE, began to make up some lost ground. Qantas, after having its credit rating downgraded to junk status two weeks ago, and falling more 15 per cent, gained 8.5 per cent this week to $1.085. QBE shares, which last week lost more than 31 per cent, due to a profit downgrade and lower guidance, recovered marginally, rising 8.4 per cent this week to $11.49. Among financials, ANZ jumped 5.1 per cent to $31.78, while NAB pushed 2.7 per cent higher to $34.26. Commonwealth Bank rose 2.3 per cent to $75.93 and Westpac added 1.8 per cent to $31.57.