KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Australian stocks ended the week marginally lower despite BHP hitting a record high during the day.
The local bourse bucked the upward lead from Wall St to close lower, as falls in many base metals prices took their toll on the mining sector.
At the 1615 AEST close, the bluechip S&P/ASX200 index was down 4.4 points to 6382.6, while the all ordinaries receded 2.6 points to 6409.3.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index futures contract was seven points lower at 6385 on a volume of 18,461 contracts.
A private client adviser for ABN AMRO Morgans, Bill Bishop, said the market close was a quite a good end to a pretty sound week.
"There are all stories doing the rounds with BHP's share price, suggesting that there could be some Chinese interest in BHP," Mr Bishop said.
"That's has lifted the whole market, despite it being down overall."
"The Asian markets have had a fairly poor day while the goldilocks market lives in Australia."
"But the banks have had a softer day with only the Commonwealth and Westpac having risen."
"Bendigo Bank has dropped quite a bit after the bid by Bank of Queensland was knocked back.
"The resources ex-BHP have ended down, it has been patchy in the sector."
BHP Billiton set a record high of A$35.60 before ending the day 29 cents up at A$35.38, while rival Rio Tinto lost 60 cents to A$98.90.
At 1624 AEST the spot price of gold in Sydney slid US$4.25 from Thursday's close to US$651.25 per fine ounce.
The major miners of the precious metal glittered less, with Newcrest slipping one cent to A$23.24, Newmont falling 11 cents to A$4.67 and Lihir eased four cents to A$3.05.
The banks were mixed, with Commonwealth gaining 29 cents to A$55.19, Westpac firming 13 cents to A$25.98 and ANZ eight cents better to A$29.48.
NAB shed 19 cents to A$41.10, St George retreated 20 cents to A$35.95, Bendigo Bank was 96 cents down at A$15.41 and failed bidder Bank of Queensland was 16 cents worse to A$17.65.
Telecommunications giant Telstra firmed two cents to A$4.72, while national airline Qantas inched forward one cent to A$5.70.
Retailer Coles Group continued its rough patch for the past few days in closing two cents down at A$16.53, while rival Woolworths added 21 cents to A$27.60 and upmarket David Jones advanced nine cents to A$5.46.
Wesfarmers Ltd, which is eyeing Coles, slumped 88 cents to A$44.01.
US stocks rose overnight, after a broker upgrade for two microchip companies lifted tech stocks and manufacturing data showed signs of economic growth.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 56.42 points to 13,545.84 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 9.35 points to 1,522.19.
The Nasdaq Composite Index added 17 points to 2,616.96.
Caltex Australia plummeted A$2.90, or 10.36 per cent, to A$25.10 - its biggest drop in six years.
The fall came after the oil refiner said it expected an interim post tax profit between A$235 million and A$255 million, after margins were hampered by a "highly competitive" retail market.
Other energy stocks were generally poorer, with Woodside down 13 cents to A$46.70. Oil Search edged four cents off to A$4.19 while Santos was four cent ahead to A$14.52.
Among the media players, Publishing and Broadcasting and Ten Network were the only companies to end the day ahead.
PBL was up 42 cents at A$19.72 and Ten two cents stronger at A$2.83.
Television rival Seven shed 13 cents to A$11.35, News Corp was unchanged at A$28.09 but its non-voting scrip 21 cents off to A$26.12, and Fairfax was down six cents to A$4.74.
The most traded stock was indoor advertiser MKY Corporation Ltd, with 103.67 million shares worth A$7.59 million changing hands. It ended two cents, or 39.22 per cent, higher at 7.1 cents.
The company has interests in Australia and New Zealand.
Preliminary market turnover was 2.25 billion shares worth A$7.05 billion, with 721 companies ending higher, 645 lower and 340 unchanged.
- AAP