Stocks end week on downbeat note

The local bourse has closed slightly down for the week, weighed on Friday by softer crude prices.

The Australian sharemarket has ended the week in lacklustre fashion, weighed down by weak crude prices and a soft trading update from Healthscope.

At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index had dipped 11.8 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 5,430.3, while the broader All Ordinaries index slid 12.3 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 5,513.9.

The local bourse weakened 0.1 per cent through a volatile week that started poorly amid a heavy sell-off in gaming stocks after the shock arrest of 18 Crown Resorts employees in China.

Crown ended down 19 per cent on the week, despite a modest 1.6 per cent bounce to $10.92 on Friday.

It was joined in the investor doghouse on Friday by hospitals operator Healthscope, as the prospect of muted growth for fiscal 2017 stirred a one-day plunge of 18.8 per cent.

Healthscope’s troubles, which led it to an eight-month low, extended to competitor Ramsay Health Care, which skidded 5.9 per cent, with the two sector heavyweights shedding a combined $1.5 billion on the day.

The focus for next week is on inflation data, due out Wednesday, with the figure key to the bias of the Reserve Bank.

“We have been allowing for another RBA rate cut in November but given recent solid economic data, evidence that the terms of trade and hence national income has bottomed and signs that the new RBA governor would prefer not to cut rates again, underlying inflation would probably need to be 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter or less to clearly bring on another rate cut in November,” AMP Capital head of investment strategy Shane Oliver said.

Energy stocks were weighed by lower oil prices on Friday, but cost-cutting strategies and the current stage of development of key projects are helping prop up the resources sector more generally.

“The oil market began to look nervous around the resistance of recent highs,” CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner said.

“(However), mining and energy stocks are now well into the implementation phase of their productivity strategies, which are for the main part on budget and on track; helping to support share prices.”

In energy, Origin dipped 0.9 per cent to $5.61 and Woodside weakened 0.9 per cent to $29.30, while Santos bucked the trend to lift 0.5 per cent to $3.84 despite a steady production update.

In materials, BHP advanced 0.8 per cent to $23.04 despite charges being laid against some of its employees in Brazil and main rival Rio Tinto was broadly flat $50.95.

Iron ore miner Fortescue jumped 1.4 per cent to $5.12 on strength in ore prices, while OZ Minerals inched down 0.2 per cent as its gold output guidance was cut for the full year.

The finance sector trended higher, although NAB lagged after a Macquarie report pinpointed it as the only big four bank likely to cut its dividend.

NAB ended broadly steady at $27.74, while ANZ and Westpac climbed 0.8 to $28.25 and 0.9 per cent to $30.43, respectively, as Macquarie reaffirmed its view they were the two top picks in the sector.

CBA joined in with the rally, tacking on 0.4 per cent to $74.90.

Among other blue chips, Telstra slipped 0.4 per cent to $5.04, while Qantas edged down 0.3 per cent to $3.25.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar traded steady around US76.3c through the local session, stalling downward momentum seen in the wake of Thursday’s weak jobs numbers.