Australian exchanges

SYDNEY: Australian shares fell yesterday. Banking and utilities stocks were down and the turmoil around Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took its toll on the Aussie dollar.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended down 21.6 points, or 0.34%, to 6244.4 points, while the All Ordinaries was down 13.5 points, or 0.21%, to 6360.3 points.

Mr Turnbull’s tenure looked doomed yesterday, as some senior ministers resigned and withdrew their support and the sitting of the House of Representatives was adjourned early.

Mr Turnbull said he would hold a leadership vote today only if he received a letter signed by a majority of Liberal party legislators.

The Aussie dollar was trading more than 0.8% lower against the US dollar and at 5pm AEST was down 0.7% at US72.96c.

‘‘We are seeing elevated sovereign risk in our country. I think it looks like the Prime Minister is going to get knocked off any minute now, so there is definitely sovereign risk here compared with emerging markets,’’ Mathan Somasundaram, market portfolio strategist at Blue Ocean Equities, said.

Financials were a major factor in ASX losses but the materials and energy sectors were bulwarks against a steeper fall.

Commonwealth Bank fell 1.6% to $70.75 and ANZ Bank fell 1.7% to $28.72.

Mr Somasundaram said money parked in Australian financials was being redeployed as trade war fears eased somewhat, sending funds to growthoriented investments.

In companies news, Qantas finished down 2.8% at $6.53, despite reporting a record annual profit, as it flagged a rise of about $690 million in its 201819 fuel bill.

Online travel group Webjet rose $2.64, or 18.2%, to $17.12 after a 63% jump in underlying fullyear profit.

South32 lifted 4.9% to $3.42 after boosting fullyear profit by 8% to $1.8 billion.

Australian energy stocks rose 0.8%, after oil prices slipped but maintained much of the 3% rise recorded on Wednesday after a largerthanexpected draw in crude inventories and as US sanctions on Iran signalled tightening supply.

The sector index’s move was helped by gains in stocks such as Santos, up 11.3% to $6.98 after a neardoubling of underlying profit in the first half.