Australian shares took a hit in Friday's trading, with the S&P/ASX 200 index falling 61.7 points by the end of the trading day.
Following the steep decline of the morning, the index bounced back in the afternoon to crest slightly higher than its starting point by nearly 2pm.
But this recovery proved shortlived, with the index continuing to trend down for the rest of the day. The index fell to 3,903.2 by market close. This compares to 3,897.9 at midday.
The All Ordinaries also fell 66.2 points from the previous day's trading. It had been down 72.9 points by midday.
Barring healthcare, all industry sectors closed lower, with the indices for the materials and energy industries both shrinking by over 350 points.
The Australian dollar stayed below parity, and was trading for around $0.976 US cents by market close.
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