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Oct 18 (Reuters) - Australian shares ended little changed on Wednesday as investors focused on China's twice-a-decade Communist Party conference for clues on policy direction in the country's biggest export market.
President Xi Jinping said in his opening speech to the gathering that China will deepen market-oriented reforms of exchange rates and interest rates, reiterating an oft-heard government pledge. the keynote speech dealt only with broad themes and gave few details.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO ended up a fractional 0.02 percent or 0.888 points at 5,890.5. The benchmark gained 0.7 percent on Tuesday.
The health care index .AXHJ rose 1.1 percent to hit an over three-month high, led by Sirtex Medical Ltd SRX.AX which rose 3.3 percent.
AGL Energy Ltd AGL.AX ended 2.1 percent higher.
Telstra Corporation Ltd TLS.AX and education company Navitas Ltd NVT.AX shed 1.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
Miners BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) Ltd BHP.AX and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) Ltd RIO.AX edged lower.
BHP Billiton reported a 4 percent drop in quarterly iron ore output while Rio Tinto came under pressure after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged the company and two of its former top executives with fraud. Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 also marked time, edging up 0.04 percent or 2.97 points to finish the session at 8,115.02.
Utilities and Telecom services were the top gaining sectors on the index with Contact Energy CEN.NZ and Spark New Zealand Ltd SPK.NZ climbing 0.9 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
Global dairy prices slumped for the second time in a row at an auction held early on Wednesday, suggesting an earlier rally was running out of steam.