The Australian sharemarket was trading lower on Friday afternoon, dragged down by a poor day for energy giants and banks, while tensions between China and the US helped drive the gold price to a fresh record.

The S&P ASX/200 was 0.6 per cent or 58 points lower at 12.30pm AEDT, with nine of the market’s 11 sectors trading in the red.

The weakest sector was energy, after global crude oil prices swung lower after US President Donald Trump agreed to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Hungary next week in hopes of resolving the war in Ukraine. The war has had the United States trying to cut off purchases of Russian oil.

Oil and gas giant Woodside fell 1.8 per cent, Santos fell 0.9 per cent and oil refiner Ampol lost 1.4 per cent.

Mining shares were mixed, with global powerhouse BHP fallin

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