ASX rebounds in afternoon trade to nearly finish up

The local share market capped off a tumultuous month with a late afternoon comeback, nearly managing to finish the day in the green.

After being down by as much as 0.6 per cent in late morning trading, the ASX200 gained steadily to finish the day down just 8.1 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 8,436.2.

The benchmark index gained 0.5 per cent for the week - hitting new record highs Monday and Thursday - and rose 3.4 per cent in November, its best monthly gain since July.

For the year it is up 11.1 per cent, with December traditionally a strong month for shares.

The All Ordinaries on Friday lost nine-tenths of a point to close at 8,699.1.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said it had been a mixed week for shares, with a lot of noise around Trump including tariff posts; political uncertainty in France; and news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

AMP's assessment is the trend is still up, but investors should expect a more volatile and constrained ride, Dr Oliver said.

Seven of the ASX's 11 sectors finished lower on Friday, consumer discretionaries were flat and energy, tech and materials gained ground.

BHP rose 1.3 per cent to $40.57, Fortescue climbed 1.6 per cent to $18.99 and Rio Tinto added 0.9 per cent to $118.24.

Resolute Mining rose 4.8 per cent as the goldminer announced it had paid another $US50 million ($77 million) to the government of Mali - on top of $US80 million ($123 million) already paid - to resolve supposed tax issues that resulted in the surprise detention of Resolute's CEO and two other employees earlier in November.

The big four banks were mostly lower, with ANZ and NAB both dropping 1.1 per cent, to $31.17 and $39.10, respectively, while Westpac edged 0.1 per cent down at $33.36.

CBA was the outlier, flat at $158.58,

Select Harvest fell 5.4 per cent to $3.69 as the nut-grower said it had swung to a $1.5 million profit for the financial year ended September 30, after a $114.7 million loss the previous year.

Managing director David Surveyor said the result showed the business was returning to normal operations and was well positioned to move forward, with supply and demand dynamics for the industry returning to a more balanced position.

Cyclopharm rose 7.0 per cent to a six-week high of $1.68, after earlier in the week receiving its first order of its lung imaging agent Technegas from the US Veterans Health Administration.

The Australian dollar was buying 65.07 US cents, from 64.84 US cents at Thursday's ASX close.

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin had gained one per cent to trade for just over $148,000 on Australian exchanges, or $US96,340 on international ones.

Looking ahead, next week the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release third-quarter gross domestic product figures on Wednesday.

ON THE ASX:

* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished Friday down 81 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 8,436.2

* The broader All Ordinaries dropped nine-tenth of a point, or 0.01 per cent, to 8,699.1.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT:

One Australian dollar buys:

* 65.15 US cents, from 64.84 US cents at Thursday's ASX close

* 97.80 Japanese yen, from 98.21 Japanese yen

* 61.64 euro cents, from 61.48 euro cents

* 51.27 British pence, from 51.21 pence

* 110.24 NZ cents, from 110.09 NZ cents.