Australian shares reverse losses

Australian shares reversed early losses to rise 0.3 percent on Friday led by a late rally in banks and telecommunications shares, overshadowing weakness in the consumer staples sector after Woolworths shares slumped. Woolworths shares fell 9.5 percent, the most since October 2008, after it warned full-year earnings will come in at the bottom end of consensus estimates.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 20.3 points to 5,928.8 at the close of trade. The benchmark fell 0.6 percent on Thursday after hitting a seven-year peak earlier in the week. The index gained 0.8 percent for the week. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.29 percent or 16.79 points to finish the session at 5,878.47. "Our run towards 6,000 points has been put on hold this week," said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at OptionXpress.
"This is the final day of earnings season and then we go back to a strong focus on economic data for next week. Hopefully we get some data which will lend itself to having a siginificant run at the 6,000-points barrier," he added. The stock market will look towards a batch of local data due next week, as expectations build for another rate cut from the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary meeting on Tuesday. Global equities dipped overnight as investor enthusiasm was dampened by a pullback in oil prices. US consumer prices fell over the past year for the first time since 2009.
Australian business investment slipped to a three-year low while future spending plans were on the weaker side of expectations. Grocer Woolworths warned full-year earnings will come in at the bottom end of consensus estimates due to planned investments. Graincorp Ltd fell 3.6 percent after it said earnings in the 2015 financial year will fall to a five-year low.
Big banks including Westpac and ANZ were in negative territory. Karoon Gas, Beach Energy and Sundance Energy were down 1.8-4.7 percent after oil fell sharply on rising inventories. New Zealand stocks gained a total of 1.7 percent this month. The drivers of the recent surge all gave ground, with top stock Fletcher Building down 1 percent at NZ$8.69, the number two stock telecommunications operator Spark easing 1.7 percent at NZ$3.24, and accounting software company Xero, down 1.8 percent to NZ$24.55. National carrier Air New Zealand added 1.25 percent to NZ$2.85, the highest since June 2007.