Australian shares unchanged as miners, tech stocks diverge

Australian shares were little changed on Friday as losses in heavyweight miners were countered by strong gains in the tech index, with investors eyeing key corporate earnings due next week.

The S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.02% lower to 7,509.3 at 0017 GMT. The benchmark index scaled record highs in the past two consecutive sessions and is now on track for its best week since June 4.

Miners were the biggest drag on the index, shedding as much as 2% due to a fall in iron ore prices. For the week so far, they were down about 3%.

Australian, NZ shares up

Major players BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue were among the biggest losers on the benchmark, falling between 2.5% and 2.1%.

The tech index, however, firmed 2.2%, led by Afterpay's 5.6% gain.

The buy now, pay later company logged a solid gain of about 36.5% for the week so far. This bolstered tech stocks to a weekly gain of 13.8% - their best since August 2003.

The focus is also on major results lined up next week from two of the country's largest banks Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank, Australia's largest telecom firm Telstra Corp, and the largest Australian general insurer Insurance Australia Group Ltd.

Among other shares and sectors, the energy index was on track to snap a three-week losing streak to end 0.1% higher.

Gold stocks lost the most on the index, down up to 2.1%.

Resolute Mining Ltd, down 3.45%, led the decline, followed by Northern Star Resources Ltd that lost 3.02%.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 worries continued to linger, with Australia's three largest cities - Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - going into a hard lockdown on Friday.

In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose as much as 0.3% and was set for a 1.3% weekly fall.