After the market's remarkable gains this week, the first following three weeks of losses, Australian shares retreated at the end of the week as the highs that marked the stocks performances finally settled on firmer levels and detracted from the week's picked up points.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed its trading with 10 points lower or 0.2 percent at 4681.3 points while the broader All Ordinaries index retreated by 5.9 points or 0.1 percent to 4740.3 points, with the ASX200 still managing to post gains of 2.2 percent for the week as the Aussie bucks closed firmer at 98.5 US cents.

By 1617 AEDT on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract lost five points to 4696 points, with a total of 19,878 contracts exchanged for the duration of the trading day.

Both the gold mining and financial industry ended the week lighter with losses of 1.3 percent and 0.4 percent respectively as the precious metal yielded its gains Thursday gains that went beyond $US1355 per ounce while materials simply moderated and industrials gained 0.2 percent.

Analysts said that the market movements for the day were generally characterised by cautious overtures from investors as the anticipated US job figures were being monitored, with one expert observing that the shares market were significantly scattered as no specific sectors were able to flex their muscles.

In mining, mixed results were seen as Alumina's report of dividend collection of up to $US41 million or $A41.8 million from Alcoa led to stock spikes of 7.5 cents or 3.93 percent to $1.985.

On the other hand, BHP Billiton shares retreated by five cents to $41.00, possibly influenced by its declaration that it is set to pay more than $C90 billion or $A90.7 billion in royalty and taxes for its Jensen potash mine in Canada.

Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals both achieved bits of gains as their socks moved up to $79.55 and $5.80, leaving the Fortescue as the best performing stock on the S&P/ASX 100 index.

Also, the country's major banks saw their stocks sliding at the week's closing as Commonwealth Bank shed 38 cents at $51.12, National Australia Bank gave up nine cents to $25.75, Westpac clipped 12 cents to $23.18 and ANZ rolled down by seven cents at $24.07.

The market saw coal miner New Hope Corporation tossing a $193 million cash takeover bid for Northern Energy Corporation that led to New Hope's shares picking up two cents to $5.10 while Northern Energy's stocks went up by 44.5 cents or 39.91 percent to $5.10.

Retailers, on the other hand, were going through some challenging times as Myers closed the week five cents lighter at $3.84, JB Hi-Fi declined by 82 cents or 3.85 percent to $20.50 and Harvey Norman shed 14 cents or 3.63 percent to $3.72, leaving the latter as the worst performer on the S&P/ASX 100 index.

Prior to the market's closing, news broke that the $1.24 billion acquisition proposal by Canadian firm Agrium Inc for AWB was declared fair, reasonable and beneficial to shareholders' interests by independent expert Lonergan Edwards & Associates, leading to gains of half a cent for AWB shares to $1.49.