Australian shares closed flat as strong gains in energy producers and the big four banks were offset by falls across the resource, health care and consumer discretionary sectors.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index finished 0.03 per cent higher, despite rising 0.36 per cent in early morning trade following gains on Wall Street overnight.
Patersons Securities economist Tony Farnham said a 2.3 per cent jump in the energy stocks index was driven by a five per cent hike in oil prices overnight – the result of renewed hopes that OPEC will announce an oil production cut at their next meeting on November 30.
“We’ve been through this process many times before so there’s every chance that we hit 30 November, and the meeting does nothing,” Mr Farnham said.
Woodside Petroleum jumped 71 cents to $29.75, Oil Search rose 22 cents to $6.79, Origin Energy added 16 cents to $5.66 and Santos rose six cents to $4.06.
Mr Farnham said the financial sector, primarily the big four banks, also held up well given the “continued sniping” in Europe about capital requirements.
Commonwealth Bank jumped 46 cents to $76.89, National Australia Bank rose 27 cents to $28.40, ANZ climbed 22 cents to $27.98 and Westpac added two cents to $30.98.
CSL dropped $2.31 to $99.14, despite the biotech giant reporting a clinical trial to assess the safety of a drug it is developing to reduce the high incidence of early recurrent heart attacks has generated positive results.
Resource companies Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals fell between 2.3 and 3.8 per cent following big falls in iron ore prices over the last few days.
The retail sector was mixed, with Wesfarmers jumping 50 cents to $41.00 after the retail and mining giant confirmed it is looking to sell its coal operations following a doubling of coal prices since June.
“These guys have always said they’ll sell assets at the right price,” Mr Farnham said.
Woolworths fell six cents to $23.30 following the surprise resignation of Big W’s chief executive Sally Macdonald after less than a year in the job.
KEY FACTS:
* The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 1.5 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 5,327.7.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 0.2 points, or zero per cent, at 5,399.6 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was down four points to 5,320, with 27,854 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 3.31 billion securities traded, worth $6.19 billion.
