At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 declined 35.32 points, or 0.53%, to 6,601.05. The broader All Ordinaries fell 31.99 points, or 0.47%, to 6,816.78.
Investors turned cautious following news that British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca might conduct an additional global trial to evaluate the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate as questions were raised about the vaccine's trial results.
The big four banks - ANZ Banking, Westpac, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank - were lower in a range of 0.3% to 1.1%.
Oil stocks fell after crude oil prices fell more than 1% in Asian trading on Friday. Oil Search lost more than 3%, while Santos and Woodside Petroleum were lower by more than 1% each. Among the major miners, BHP Group declined more than 1% and Rio Tinto was down 0.5%, while Fortescue Metals rose 0.5%.
Treasury Wine dived on China's plans to impose temporary anti-dumping measures on Australian wine imports. China said it will impose temporary anti-dumping tariffs on wine imported from Australia from Nov. 28, with Treasury Wine required to pay the highest deposit to China's customs authority of all wine importers.
CURRENCY NEWS: The risk-sensitive Australian dollar fell 0.01% versus the greenback to $0.736.
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