Australian exchanges

SYDNEY: Australian shares suffered a late slide as energy and materials stocks falling, while the dollar has hit its lowest level since January, 2017, as worries about eurozone bank stability trigger a riskoff flight to the greenback.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed down 19.3 points, or 0.31%, at 6278.4 points on Friday while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 16.8 points, or 0.26%, at 6366.8 points.

In futures trade, the SPI200 Futures Index was down 20 points, or 0.32%, to 6219 points.

For the week, the S&P/ASX200 gained 0.7%.

The Australian dollar was at US73.17c at 5pm AEST, down from US74.31c on Thursday to a 19month low as investors flocked to the safehaven US dollar.

NAB head of FX strategy Ray Attrill said the aussie’s punishment was fallout from a global riskoff rush to the greenback triggered by a report that eurozone banks could be overly exposed to the tumbling Turkish lira.

The Turkish lira hit an all time low on Friday after a meeting the day before between a Turkish delegation and US officials in Washington yielded no apparent solution to a diplomatic rift over the detention in Turkey of a US pastor.

A report in the Financial Times on Friday afternoon flagged concerns about the exposure of EU banks to Turkish debt.

On the ASX on Friday, the energy index lost 1.8% with crude prices pressured by worries over demand fuelled by ChinaUS trade dispute concerns.

Frontmonth Brent crude oil futures were trading at $US71.91 per barrel, down 0.22% from their last close.

Beach Energy dropped 3.5% to $1.92 and led losses on the energy sector.

With reporting season ending its first week, baby goods retailer Baby Bunting soared 38.5% to $2.41 after flagging improved trading in 201819 despite a 29% drop in fullyear profit.

Online real estate giant REA Group lifted 3.6% to $85.30 after showing a 23% lift in fullyear net profit to $280 million.

James Hardie shares dropped 6.6% to $21.70 as the building supplies group gave guidance for its 2018/19 adjusted operating profit below the average of analyst expectations.

‘‘With rising [US] interest rates, it is going to get harder for them going forward and so the market is reading into that,’’ said Mathan Somasundaram, market portfolio strategist at Blue Ocean Equities.

ON THE ASX:

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 19.3 points, or 0.31%, at 6,278.4 points.

The broader All Ordinaries index was down 16.8 points, or 0.26%, at 6,366.8 points.

The SPI200 futures contract was down 21 points, or 0.3%, at 6,218 points at 1630 AEST.

CURRENCY:

One Australian dollar buys: US73.17c, from US74.31c on Thursday

¥81.217, from ¥82.503

¤0.6383, from ¤0.6404

£0.5722, from £0.5772

NZ110.94c, from NZ111.55c.

GOLD:

The spot price of gold in Sydney at 5pm AEST was $US1215.69 per fine ounce, down from $US1213.848 perfine ounce on Thursday. — AAP