Australian shares are slightly weaker as disappointing US earnings results drag down the big banks, but the big miners power ahead.
Miners were in positive territory with investors excited about positive production forecasts, City Index senior market analyst Kara Ordway said.
“The projected forecasts going into 2014 are giving the miners a boost,” she said.
Wall Street finished mostly weaker, following disappointing earnings from key players like Citigroup, which prompted the Dow Jones Industrial Average to shed 0.38 per cent and the broad-based S&P 500 to fall 0.13 per cent.
Locally, virtually every sector, except those related to mining, fell.
Among mining giants, Rio Tinto added $1.35, or 2.06 per cent, to $66.93 while diversified miner BHP Billiton added $1.03 or 2.8 per cent, to $37.85.
Iron ore miner Fortescue added five cents to $5.58.
Of the big banks, Commonwealth lost 19.5 cents to $75.605, ANZ shed 27 cents to $30.82, Westpac dropped 21 cents to $31.62 and NAB was 27 cents lower at $33.82.
Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory was up two cents, or 0.21 per cent, at $9.42 after Bega Cheese on Thursday said it would sell its 18.8 per stake in the company to Canadian dairy giant Saputo. The move puts Saputo in prime position over Australia’s Murray Goulburn dairy co-operative in the battle for WCB.
Bega shares on Friday were up eight cents, or 1.73 per cent, at $4.70.
KEY FACTS
* At 1015 AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 9.8 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 5,299.3.
* The broader All Ordinaries index dropped 9.7 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 5,309.7.
* The March share price index futures contract lost 10 points at 5,261, with 8,102 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 176 million securities worth $377 million.