THE Australian share market closed lower on Friday on profit-taking following Thursday's rally.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed down 10.1 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 4,689.0 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was 7.7 points lower, or 0.16 per cent, at 4,758.2 points.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was eight points lower at 4,702 points, with 24,373 contracts traded.
CMC Markets head of trading James Foulsham said investors were taking a "breather" and profit-taking after several strong days trading.
"In terms of what the sectors (are) doing, most are down, but only pretty small amounts.
"Overall, it's been a pretty good week in the equity markets and the currency markets as well," he said.
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Rio Tinto was a standout today, which Mr Foulsham said was due to strong commodity prices.
Rio finished up $1.12, or 1.36 per cent, at $83.20.
"The price of gold, the price of copper and some of the other commodities have just been going from strength to strength over the last month or so," Mr Foulsham said.
A report on Thursday said the miner produced record amounts of iron ore, alumina and coking coal in the September quarter.
BHP Billiton closed down one cent at $41.65 and Fortescue Metals Group ended up three cents at $6.41.
Mr Foulsham said the big four banks were down on profit-taking.
"Those banks have done pretty well and people are just taking a little bit of money off the table before the weekend," he said.
Westpac lost 18 cents to $22.93, Commonwealth Bank closed down 10 cents at $51.10, ANZ was 19 cents lower at $23.81 and National Australia Bank was down 19 cents at $25.49.
Among the financials, Macquarie Group was a strong performer but was possibly just making up for a weaker performance on Thursday, Mr Foulsham said.
"Macquarie was actually off yesterday, so I think it's probably making back a little bit of the ground," Mr Foulsham said.
Macquarie ended up 36 cents, or 1.06 per cent, at $34.26.
In market news on Friday, Santos priced a 300 million euro ($A420 million) hybrid note issue to help fund its Gladstone liquefied natural gas (GLNG) project in Queensland.
Shares in Santos closed up seven cents at $12.91.
Crown director David Gyngell bought 11,500 shares in the company for $100,165, according to a notice released to the Australian Securities Exchange. Company chairman James Packer paid $201 million to lift his stake by three per cent.
Shares in the gambling group ended up one cent at $8.78.
In other news, Cockatoo Coal said it completed a capital raising in which it sought $150.8 million.
Shares in Cockatoo closed steady at 53.5 cents.
The spot price of gold in Sydney closed at $US1,380.40 per fine ounce, up one dollar from Thursday's local close of $US1,379.40.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining was the worst performer on the S&P/ASX 20, finishing down 44 cents, or 1.03 per cent, at $42.08.
The most traded stock by volume was Intoll Group, with 158.63 million shares worth $236.46 million changing hands.
Shares in Intoll ended steady at $1.49.
Preliminary market turnover was 2.4 billion securities worth $4.52 billion, with 536 stocks up, 569 down and 385 unchanged.
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