The Australian sharemarket finished the day largely where it started on Thursday, after a rally in the energy sector offset losses in tech stocks and the big four banks.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose just 2.8 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, to 9032.8, with six out of the 11 sectors in the green. The All Ordinaries climbed 8 points, or 0.1 per cent.
Oil spike
Energy was the standout, rallying 3.2 per cent as the oil price spiked after the US imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil. Brent surged almost 4 per cent to trade near $US65 a barrel
IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said further gains in oil could be harder to secure, given past sanction threats have often been diluted or delayed, and enforcement could be difficult.
Still, Santos finished the session up 2.2 per cent to $6.45 and Karoon Energy 9.4 per cent to $1.57. Woodside jumped 4.3 per cent to $24.17 amid news that it has formed a strategic partnership with US natural gas infrastructure leader Williams.
Elsewhere in the sector, Ampol, Viva Energy, and Beach Energy all finished up more than 2 per cent.
The big four banks had a lacklustre session. Commonwealth Bank fell 1.4 per cent to $171.66, while Westpac edged down 0.9 per cent to $38.88, National Australia Bank 0.7 per cent to $43.38, and ANZ 0.4 per cent to $37.
Tech stocks, meanwhile, tracked a sell-off on Wall Street overnight. Apple paced losses among the mega-caps, while Netflix plunged 10 per cent, its biggest intraday drop in more than three years, after a tax dispute with Brazil hit third-quarter earnings.
On the ASX, WiseTech finished down 1.5 per cent to $83.10, Xero 2.5 per cent to $150.46, Nuix 4.9 per cent to $2.92, Block 2.2 per cent to $117.10, and Zip 2.7 per cent to $4.
Mining heavyweight BHP also had a weak session, falling 1.2 per cent to $43, despite chairman Ross McEwan confirming commercial talks with China over iron ore.
Stocks in focus
While the gold price extended its sell-off on Thursday, some of the miners rebounded on favourable quarterly production reports. Northern Star rallied 2.3 per cent to $24.11 after it reported a steady September quarter and Regis Resources gained 2 per cent to $6.58 after it generated $158 million in cash and bullion.
Fortescue Metals rose 2.4 per cent to $20.84 after it posted a first-quarter iron ore shipment of 49.7 million tonnes, up 4 per cent on the prior year and a record for a first quarter.
IAG rose 1.4 per cent to $7.98 after it upgraded its 2026 fiscal year guidance following the completion of its RACQ Insurance acquisition.
Pokies manufacturer Ainsworth Game Technology rallied 4 per cent to $1.05 as it confirmed it had received a partial takeover offer overnight from its second-largest shareholder, Kjerulf Ainsworth.
Super Retail Group fell 4 per cent to $16.47 after reporting 2.6 per cent like-for-like sales growth and 4.5 per cent total sales growth in the first 16 weeks of the financial year.
And Silex Systems jumped 8.8 per cent to $8.42 after its uranium enrichment technology met a key third-party validation.