Australian shares have sunk in late trading to finish nearly flat for the day.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index lost 33 points in the final 93 minutes of trade to finish up just 4.6 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 6,180.7 points at 1615 AEDT on Friday. The broader All Ordinaries closed up 5.2 points, or 0.08 per cent, at 6,261.7.
"It's been a bit of a risk-on day," IG Australia market analyst Kyle Rodda told AAP late in the afternoon.
He said the rally had apparently been sparked by positive comments from US officials in China for trade talks that reaffirming there was a desire to resolve the dispute.
Despite the late sell-off there was some good news: the ASX200 concluded the first quarter of the year up 9.46 per cent, its best quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2009.
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Tech stocks were the best performers, collectively up 0.71 per cent, with Afterpay Touch up 2.6 per cent to $20.95 and Livetiles up 4.21 per cent to $49.50.
Utilities closed down 0.8 per cent, with APA Group down 0.89 per cent to $9.98 and AGL Energy down 0.87 per cent to $21.77.
Mining titan BHP gained 0.65 per cent to $38.49, Rio Tinto was up 1.56 per cent to $97.91 and Fortescue Metals was up 3.04 per cent to $7.11.
Most consumer discretionary stocks did well: Harvey Norman gained 3.61 per cent to $4.02, Super Retail Group closed up 5.66 per cent to $8.03 and JB Hi-Fi was up 2.38 per cent to $24.95.
Among the big four banks, NAB was up 0.64 per cent to $25.27, ANZ was up 0.04 per cent to $26.03, Westpac was down 0.12 per cent to $25.92 and the Commonwealth was down 0.38 per cent to $70.64.
CSL gained 0.69 per cent to $194.94 and Telstra was up 0.30 per cent to $3.32.
Wesfarmers was down 0.77 per cent to $34.65, and the Perth conglomerate showed no signs of giving up its quest to acquire Lynas Corporation, despite being initially rebuffed by the lithium miner.
In an emailed statement, managing director Rob Scott told AAP that Wesfarmers remained keen to work collaboratively with Lynas and to hear the company's solution to the regulatory issues in Malaysia that had weighed on the company for many years.
The Aussie dollar is buying 70.97 US cents, from 71.00 US cents on Thursday.
ON THE ASX:
* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 4.6 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 6,180.7 points at 1630 AEDT on Friday.
* The All Ordinaries was up 5.2 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 6,261.7.
* At 1630 AEDT, the SPI200 futures index was down five points, or 0.08 per cent, to 6,166.
CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEDT:
One Australian dollar buys:
* 70.97 US cents, from 71.00 US on Thursday
* 78.57 Japanese yen, from 78.19
* 63.19 euro cents, from 63.07
* 54.30 British pence, from 53.78
* 104.39 NZ cents, from 104.07
