Australian shares fall; New Zealand up

Australian shares ended lower on Friday with financials being the biggest drag after the banking regulator spelled out plans for a major investigation into back-to-back scandals at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.3 percent, or 17.28 points, to 5,672.60. For the week, it fell 0.9 percent.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said on Friday it would dig deeper to look into whether CBA's corporate structure had enabled a series of scandals that have hurt the reputation of the nation's biggest bank by market value. The "Big Four" banks - Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group - all ended lower. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.6 percent to 7,851.53, supported by industrial and consumer stocks.