The Australian currency finished at four-month highs, underpinned by news that China's trade surplus had unexpectedly shrunk.

At 1700 AEST on Friday, the local unit was trading at $US0.9231/33, up from Thursday's close of $US0.9215/17.

Since 0700 AEST, the local currency traded between $US0.9205 and $US0.9241.

The Aussie was initially affected by local stocks weakness before being buoyed by reassuring Chinese data, according to CMC Markets foreign exchange dealer Tim Waterer.

"The Australian dollar has put on some gains in a pretty short space of time in the afternoon as has the euro," Mr Waterer said.

"I think it's just a reaction to some of the Chinese data that was out earlier today, which was quite encouraging really."

China, Australia's biggest trade partner and a major buyer of its commodities, reported a surprising jump in August imports, showing a strengthening of domestic demand in an economy that has become a major driver of global growth.

The country's imports posted a 35.2 percent year-on-year increase to reach $119.27 billion last month, with the growth rate up 12.5 percentage points from that in July, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Friday.

Annual export growth, meanwhile, slowed to 34.4 per cent in August from 38.1 per cent in July but was close to expectations of a 35 per cent rise.

As a result, the monthly trade surplus is narrowed to $US20 billion in August from $28.7 billion the previous month. The median forecast was $US27.1 billion.

Mr Waterer said the Chinese data helped the Aussie offset session lows on the lack of any domestic drivers.

He expects the Aussie to trade as high as $US0.9350 in the near term.

"Certainly $US0.9300-$US0.9350 is not out of the question."