Australian shares fell for a sixth straight session on Friday, their worst start to a year on record, as concerns about China's slowing economy and its policymaking ability weighed on investors. The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 19.54 points, or 0.4 percent, at the close of trade. For the week, the benchmark was down 5.8 percent, its biggest weekly fall since 2011 and its biggest fall in the first week of a calendar year ever.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 58.3 points, or 0.9 percent, to finish the session at 6,155.1, down 2.6 percent for the week. The benchmark is down more than 6 percent for the year so far, making for its worst opening week on record. "There's no doubt it is a very, very tough time, and the fact that our largest trading partner is currently being questioned on whether it has control of its economy is making things pretty tough," said IG Markets strategist Evan Lucas.
"The possible fallout of China having a hard landing is always going to have a massive effect on our economy." Financial stocks were the biggest drag on the index, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia down 1.7 percent, National Australia Bank down 1.4 percent, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group down 0.5 percent and Westpac Banking Corp off by 0.3 percent.
Fund manager Perpetual was down 4 percent. Dairy exporters also fell, on concerns about their exposure to Chinese consumer demand. Bega Cheese dropped 7 percent and Blackmores, the company it is joining to export baby formula to China, was down 2.5 percent. Miners defied the index and edged higher amid signs a downturn in commodity prices may be over. Rio Tinto fell 2.3 percent while rival BHP Billiton was flat. BHP spin-off South32 was up nearly 3 percent.