Australian markets end on sour note

The Australian share market has finished the week on a sour note, after broad-based selling pushed the bourse lower on Friday.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed down 17.2 points, or 0.34 per cent, at 4,984.7 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 16.8 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 5,007.3 points.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange at 1615 AEDT, the June share price index contract was 21 points lower at 4,996 on a volume of 19,354 contracts.

Macquarie Private Wealth division director Martin Lakos said the market was closing about the same level as it started the week.

"It has had a really good run through this last month and I wouldn't be surprised to see a bit of a pullback before it heads higher, and I am pretty confident that it will," Mr Lakos said.

"Energy is probably down the most, materials are down, too, and financials are about one quarter of a per cent lower," he said.

Resources giant BHP Billiton fell 35 cents to $43.54 and rival Rio Tinto was down 38 cents at $79.67.

Macarthur Coal jumped up $1.26, or 8.25 per cent, to $16.54 after American coal giant Peabody on Thursday evening made a sweetened, all cash offer for the company at $16 per share.

Rio Tinto offshoot Coal & Allied revealed it was receiving almost double last year's price for its semi-soft coking coal, following its switch to quarterly pricing.

Shares in the collier fell 50 cents to $97.50.

Retailers were mostly lower, too. Coles owner Wesfarmers fell 36 cents to $32.39 and Woolworths edged down 10 cents to $27.28.

Myer Holdings was three cents weaker at $3.19 and David Jones gained two cents to $4.56 and Harvey Norman put on one cent to $3.59.

Making news, insurer QBE said its US$565 million (A$604.67 million) acquisition of a US crop insurer would boost earnings per share from the first year of the acquisition.

QBE shares rose 10 cents to $22.10.

Qantas cancelled all of Friday's flights from Australia to the UK and Germany in response to gas cloud from the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Shares in the airline ended up two cents at $2.98.

The top-traded stock by volume was Grand Gulf Energy, with 99.45 million shares worth $1.41 million changing hands.

Its shares were up 0.3 cents, or 27.27 per cent, at 1.4 cents.

Preliminary national turnover was 2.39 billion shares worth $5.51 billion, with 481 stocks up, 625 down and 382 unchanged.

- AAP