(Reuters) - Australian shares firmed on Monday, with banks recouping early losses to end higher ahead of the final report of a powerful inquiry into misconduct in the sector, and energy stocks supported by firmer oil prices.
The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.48 percent higher at 5,891.20. The benchmark was little changed on Friday.
Lenders, insurers, pension funds and regulators who oversee the country's most profitable sector awaited a list of recommendations from the Royal Commission into misdeeds and wrongdoings in the industry, which came out after the market close.
The report advised that Australia's corporate regulators should be subjected to a new oversight body, while remuneration structures across the industry be overhauled to remove systemic conflicts of interest.
Ahead of the findings, financial stocks led gains on the benchmark, ending 1.3 percent higher after dropping as much as 0.6 percent during early trade. Analysts did not expect a major immediate impact on valuations in the sector from the report.
"With the Royal Commission, we had a lot of the news come out on the way, and the market has pretty much priced in all of the bad news," said James McGlew, executive director of corporate stockbroking at Argonaut.
"The banks also seem better equipped to deal with the negative news than fund managers like AMP and IOOF, whose only real assets at the end of the day are their reputations," McGlew said.
The big four banks gained between 0.7 percent and 1.18 percent, however beleaguered wealth manager AMP Ltd fell to a record low.
AMP's battered reputation has seen it lose more than half of its market value in the last year.
Boosted by a strength in oil prices energy stocks advanced 1.3 percent.
Sector heavyweights, Woodside Petroleum and Santos ended 0.7 and 2 percent higher, respectively.
Elsewhere, the country's materials index snapped five sessions of gains and ended 0.3 percent lower, dragged by a sharp fall in Australia's largest building supplier, Boral Ltd
Boral dropped as much as 8.3 percent and was the worst performer on the benchmark after it flagged a fall in first half core earnings.
Across the Tasman sea, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.22 percent or 19.76 points to 8,979.41.
Dairy company Synlait Milk and Fonterra Shareholders' Fund fell 1.9 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.
(Reporting by Syed Saif Hussain Naqvi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes)
