Australian shares post second straight weekly loss

Australian shares slipped 0.9 percent on Friday, tipping the market into a second consecutive weekly loss, as Europe sought more reforms from Greece to secure a bailout deal and China reported a sharp fall in imports. China, Australia's top trade partner and key consumer of resources, said its imports shrank an annual 15.3 percent in January, a figure skewed by the early Lunar New Year holidays.
Those factors and disappointing earnings from Rio Tinto combined to drag mining stocks lower, with both BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto dropping more than 2 percent. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 37.6 points to 4,245.30, according to latest available data. The benchmark slipped 0.2 percent on Thursday.
Friday's loss saw the index end the week down 0.1 percent. After rising in the first four weeks of 2012, the index has now lost ground in the past two. Qantas Airways fell 2.8 percent to A$1.58 after European air safety officials ordered global checks for wing cracks on Airbus A380 superjumbo planes earlier than previously scheduled. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index edged up 0.6 percent to 3,348.13.