Australian sharemarket set to open higher THE Australian sharemarket is expected to push back above 5000 points in the next week amid a fairly positive outlook for global stocks. AMP chief economist Shane Oliver is tipping a strong open for the local market on Monday, following news China will lift controls on lending interest rates and a mildly positive performance from the S&P 500 in New York on Friday night. "We should have a reasonably good start to trade on Monday, reducing the falls we had on Friday," he said. And I think we'll probably see modest gains after that for the rest of the week. Sharemarket futures point to a gain of around 0.4 per cent when local stocks open on Monday. Stocks finished lower on Friday, driven in part by weakness in Asian markets, especially Japan. The ASX 200 finished the session 21.3 points lower, or 0.43 per cent, at 4,972.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index dropped 17.5 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 4,959.4. Dr Oliver said the market should push back above 5000 points during the week, helped along by global stocks and local inflation data. For the early part of the week I think we'll take our lead from international markets, where the focus will be on housing and home price data in the US, both of which I think will show continued improvement. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' quarterly consumer price data due out on Wednesday are expected to show inflation remaining comfortably within the Reserve Bank of Australia's target range. "A benign CPI outcome should be seen as good news for the market because it would point towards a rate cut in August," Dr Oliver said. He said the upcoming reporting season and the possibility of a federal election late next month meant August could be a volatile time for the market. But conditions were likely to improve in the December quarter, and he expected the market to reach 5200 points - a level last seen in May this year - by the end of 2013.