Local stocks edged slightly lower in afternoon trade as mining stocks turned negative. Merger and acquisition activity had earlier supported the market. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) closed down 5.5pts or 0.1pct to 4773.3 while the S&P/ASX 200 Index (XJO) eased by 4.7pts or 0.1pct to 4688.

Shares in AXA Asia Pacific (AXA) rose an impressive 6.8pct to $6.17 after AMP Limited (AMP) made a bid for the company's Australian and New Zealand assets, almost a year after its original bid which was thwarted by a failed takeover from the National Australia Bank (NAB). AMP and France's AXA SA will offer $6.43 or $13.3 billion for AXA, an 11pct premium to AXA's closing price on Friday. AMP added 2.3pct to $5.45. Shares in the NAB rose 0.6pct to $24.67.

Among other financial stocks, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) rose 0.6pct to $48.86 after posting a $1.6 billion cash profit for the three months to September. Shares in Westpac (WBC) fell 0.1pct to $21.92 while the ANZ (ANZ) fell 0.6pct to $23.08 and Macquarie Group (MQG) was down 0.1pct to $36.15.

Index leader BHP Billiton (BHP) fell 0.4pct to $44.14 despite initial investor enthusiasm on news the mining giant has officially scrapped its plans to buy Canada's Potash Corp and instead will focus on a share buyback. Weaker metals trade in London on Friday night saw Rio Tinto (RIO) lose 0.2pct to $87.04 while Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) closed down 1.6pct to $6.75. Gold miner Newcrest (NCM) fell 2pct to $41.66.

Shares in Qantas (QAN) closed down 0.4pct to $2.79 after one of its 747 jets en route to Argentina was forced to turn back to Sydney after take-off. Virgin Blue Australia (VBA) shares lost 2.2pct to $7.24.

Telstra (TLS) closed steady at $2.61.

Shares in retailers were generally stronger. Harvey Norman (HVN) closed steady at $3.12 while David Jones (DJS) was up 1.1pct to $4.50 and Wesfarmers (WES) rose 0.2pct to $33.35.

Total lending (business, housing, personal and lease loans) rose by 2.2pct in September, after sliding by 5.2pct in August.

Annual growth of personal credit facilities like credit cards and overdraft facilities rose by 0.8pct on a year ago, the weakest annual growth rate in 16 years. Loans to buy blocks of land steady were down 27.8pct down on a year ago.

Australian new car sales tracked lower in October. Car sales fell by 0.6pct in October after a 1pct rise in September. Passenger car sales fell by 1.6pct in the month.

Sales of SUVs rose by 1.5pct in October. Over the past year more than 233,000 SUVs have been sold, the best result in records going back 16 years.

According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum the national average retail pump price rose 0.3 cents a litre last week to 123.7 cents a litre. Over the next fortnight CommSec expects pump prices to trend towards $1.25 litre especially given that the wholesale (terminal gate) price has hit three month highs.

The Australian dollar ended the day's trade at US98.44c, £0.6109 and €71.97c.

On the market overall, a total of 2.47 billion shares were traded, worth $4.65 billion. 460 were up, 668 were down and 355 were unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEDT on the ASX24, the futures market was at 4705, down 3pts.

Ahead tonight, retail sales and business inventories are released.