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By Colin Packham and Rebecca Howard
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, SYDNEY, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell 0.5 percent on Friday, coming off a two-week high touched in the previous session.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO fell 26 points to 4,966.1 by 0123 GMT. The benchmark rose 1.2 percent on Thursday when prices hit a two-week high of 4,992.
Financials led the Australian benchmark lower, with National Australia Bank NAB.AX and ANZ Bank ANZ.AX both falling more than 1 percent.
The energy sector also fell, led by losses of Santos Ltd STO.AX , which fell 5 percent after the Australian oil and gas producer Santos Ltd STO.AX, which rejected a A$7.1 billion ($5.04 billion) takeover last year, slid to a loss of A$2.7 billion in 2015. Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.2 percent or 13 points to 6,124.07 on Friday.
The biggest gainers were Chorus CNU.NZ , up 4.9 percent. The company posted a sharply lower net profit but investors were cheered when it said it would resume paying dividends. Auckland Airport AIA.NZ was up 3.1 percent after it reported a 25 percent lift in its HY net profit and lifted its guidance.
"Good results are being well received by the market," giving sentiment an overall lift, said Craigs Investment Partners Investment Advisor Belinda Stanley.
In the other direction A2 Milk ATM.NZ was trading down 6.9 percent on profit taking after its sharp gains earlier in the week.
($1 = 1.4075 Australian dollars)